Single Review on past events

Senior Fellow Adelheid Godt from the department of Chemistry closed the summer term 2013 with her Jour Fixe talk on “Molecular rulers for spectroscopic rulers”. To explain her field of interest she started by quoting Francis Crick, molecular biologist and biophysicist, who once said: “If you want to understand function, study the structure.” She adds: “If we want to understand function, we have to consider not only the structure but also the dynamics of molecules" and emphasises that when designing functional nanoscopic molecules, dynamics is to be taken into account. And that´s exactly what she and her coworkers contribute to: As organic chemists they synthesise tailored molecules for the evaluation and further development of tools that help to gain knowledge about the structure and dynamics of molecules. These tools function as spectroscopic rulers.  

Senior Fellow Gunnar Jeschke developed the spectroscopic ruler called DEER (Double Electron Electron Resonance), a special EPR (Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance) technique. Adelheid Godt contributed to this development by design and provision of molecular rulers with which the technique was evaluated. These rulers consist of a rodlike spacer and two spin labels - paramagnetic moieties - which are attached at the ends of this spacer. Based on the results of a DEER experiment you can determine not only the distance between the two labels, but also the distance between the two sites to which the labels are attached, as well as the flexibility of the spacer. Malte Drescher who nominated Adelheid Godt as Senior Fellow benefits enormously from this method. He describes it as “very well established technique for biological applications to understand biological processes”. Together they work on an application for studies of peptides in living cells. This demands for new, chemically very stable spin labels and new ways of attaching them to the peptide.

In the end of her presentation the Senior Fellow mentioned some further current research aims: She wants to develop spin labels that give higher sensitivity and therefore reduce the measurement time and the amount of material needed. With the new spin labels the range of accessible distances may be increased and the development of EPR techniques which are fundamentally different from DEER will be supported. In all these cases appropriate molecular rulers will be an essential tool.