Type: Practical with Student Seminar

Date: 09.01.-27.01.2012

Hosts/Supervisors: Jörg Langowski, Katalin Tóth, Norbert Mücke, Tabea Elbel, Jan Krieger, Jeremy Smith, Stefan Fischer (contact: jl@dkfz.de)

Topics:

Modern biochemistry and systems biology relies on quantitative information about the structure, dynamics and interactions of biological macromolecules. Much of this information is not accessible by atomic-scale methods like X-ray crystallography, but has to be collected on the system in the native state, or close to it.
The training program introduces to a selection of methods that allow characterizing shape, size and interactions of biological macromolecules in vitro and in living cells. Furthermore, the first week is dedicated to an introduction into various modeling techniques.

Content:

• Sedimentation velocity and equilibrium in the analytical ultracentrifuge, characterization of the shape and size of GFP-oligomers
• Imaging of superhelical DNA by atomic force microscopy
• Single-molecule spectroscopy of fluorescent biomolecules: measurement of diffusion and interactions of GFP -oligomers in vitro and in living cells

Prerequisites:

Basic high school physics, motivation to think quantitatively.