We do research in the field of bioinformatics and computational biology. Broadly, we have been interested in the identification and analysis of unusual motifs and interactions in three-dimensional structures of proteins and nucleic acids. Despite much work and a database of experimentally determined biopolymer structures that is increasing frighteningly fast, success in the prediction of three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules is scarce. One explanation may be that currently known structural principles do not disclose the complete picture and that new concepts and new ideas are necessary to propel the field from the mainly descriptive into a more predictive mode. More specifically, we have worked on

• water-mediated interactions in nucleic acid base pairs
• the geometry and electronic structure of base tetrad motifs occurring in telomeric DNA, for example,
• the role of the C-H...PI-motif in proteins as well as of C-H...O/N interactions in RNA structures
• the nest motif in proteins.

We apply as methods

• quantum-chemical calculations
• molecular dynamics simulations
• structural bioinformatics approaches.

In addition, we are maintaining the IMB Jena Image Library of Biological Macromolecules. This database is aimed at a better dissemination of information on three- dimensional structures of biological macromolecules. It starts out from data obtained from the Protein Data Bank and the Nucleic Acid Database as well as from many other databases and adds a variety of unique visualization, analysis and classification tools.

Recently, we have started projects in computational genomics. In a joint project with the FLI Genome Anlysis Group we have developed the software/database system GenColors. This is a web-based software/database system aimed at an improved and accelerated determination of prokaryotic genomes taking into account information on related finished genomes and making extensive use of genome comparison analyses. The system ha sbeen used for the determination of the genomic sequence of Borrelia garinii and is used in a number of ongoing sequencing projects.

Finally, as a by-product of our research we maintain widely used molecular biology websites.

We offer the following services to the scientific community:

• The IMB Jena Image Library of Biological Macromolecules
• The RNA World at IMB Jena
• The Jena Prokaryotic Genome Viewer
  
• GenColors
• The Spirochetes Genome Browser
• The JCB Protein-Protein Interaction Website
• HBexplore (computer program for the analysis of hydrogen bond patterns in biopolymers)
• CombiTool (computer program for combined-action assesment of biologically active agents)

See our list of publications and the image gallery.