Biocomputing: Structural bioinformatics and computational genomics

Dr. Jürgen Sühnel has retired as FLI Group Leader in June 2011. He was Coordinator of JenAge.

We did research in the field of bioinformatics and computational biology with an emphasis on structural biology and computational genomics. In the structural biology field we have been interested in the identification and analysis of unusual motifs and interactions in three-dimensional structures of proteins and nucleic acids. Our research involved different techniques including quantum-chemical calculations, molecular dynamics simulations and structural bioinformatics approaches.

More specifically, we have worked

1. water-mediated interactions in nucleic acid base pairs,
2. the geometry and electronic structure of base tetrad motifs occurring in telomere structures, for example,
3. C-H...O-, C-H...N- and C-H...PI interactions,
4. the role of non-repetitive dipeptide motifs in proteins that correspond to transitions between different Ramachandran plot clusters.