Huntington Disease (HD)

Huntington’s disease is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder, which is caused by the peptide huntingtin (HTT). This project aims the structure prediction of HTT in context with the Huntington’s disease by means of advanced replica exchange approaches. The formation of pathological Htt amyloid fibers can be suppressed by binding to appropriate chaperone complexes. With the molecular understanding of the binding through the identification of key players in docking analysis and molecular dynamics simulations, we want to thus provide incentives for novel therapeutic approaches.

Fibrilar Proteins (SALFIB)

Fibrious protein scaffolds are particularly attractive for various tissue engineering applications. However, to date it is not yet understood whether specific surface interactions or buffer conditions contribute to the fibrillogenesis of ECM proteins (Fibronectine) or Plasmaproteins (Fibrinogen). With a multiscale combination of closely connected simulative (HMI) and experimental (AG Brüggemann) methods, we want to adress the underlying molecular mechanism of fibrillogenesis with regard to environmental and molecular conditions.

Chitosan Interactions

Chitosan is an attractive biomaterial as it combines excellent biocompatibility with anti-inflammatory properties and antimicrobial activity. The effizient production and use of chitosan composites or chitosan as carrier material for other biological macromolecules require a molecular understanding of the adjustable physicochemical properties of chitosan. In this project we aim to unravel the influence of the molecular compositon of chitosan as well as environmental parameters on chitosan - biomolecular binding processes.