Ernst Bamberg

Ernst Bamberg

Ernst Bamberg

The Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Germany

The focus of the research of the department is the functional analysis of electrogenic membrane proteins. Transporters, ion pumps as well as ion channels are under investigation. Electric, electrophysiological and spectroscopic methods are applied. The proteins are studied in their native environment by voltage-clamp, patch-clamp and voltage-clamp fluorometry and in the purified form reconstituted in artificial membranes by various electric methods such as black lipid membranes and solid supported membranes.

The methodological spectrum is completed by protein purification and molecular biology approaches In order to obtain a detailed view of the transport across the membrane kinetic methods are applied to study transport and conformational dynamics of the proteins in situ and in vitro.

The projects deal with a variety of bacterial transporters, which can be studied only in a reconstituted system. The other main topic is the functional and structural analysis of the retinal binding protein channelrhodopsin 2 (ChR2) and its application in neuro and cell biology. ChR2, which was described by us as the first light-gated channel became a long sought tool in neurobiology, because insertion in neural cells in culture as well as in living animals allows the stimulation of these cells simply by light. In other words ChR2 allows the activation of electrically excitable cells in a non-invasive manner with up to now unknown temporal and, even more important, spatial resolution. ChR2 is used worldwide for basic neurobiological research and for biomedical applications as well.

Parts of the research activities are inserted into the Sonderforschungsbereich 807and in the CEF Frankfurt. Support comes also from the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience Göttingen.

Spectroscopy support is obtained by the groups of J. Wachtveitl, C. Glaubitz, Frankfurt University and by the group of J. Heberle, University of Bielefeld. A fruitful collaboration exists with the former group member G. Nagel, University of Würzburg. For biomedical applications of ChR2 we contribute to projects on recovery of vision and on Parkinson disease in international consortia.

Collaborations on structural analyses exist with the departments of Molecular Membrane Biology and of Structural Biology.

The department contributes to the biochemistry curriculum of the Frankfurt University with regular lectures and lab courses.

Speakers

Piotr Bregestovski
Piotr Bregestovski

Emeritus Director of Research, Aix Marseille University, INSERM, Institute of System Neurosciences, Marseille, France

Sebastian Schmidt
Sebastian Schmidt

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Stanislav Kukla
Stanislav Kukla

Merck KGaA, Germany

Thomas Gensch
Thomas Gensch

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Adam Round
Adam Round

European XFEL, Germany

Anton Chugunov
Anton Chugunov

Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of bioorganic chemistry RAS, Russia

Michael Hanson
Michael Hanson

GPCR Consortium, USA

Ulrike Alexiev
Ulrike Alexiev

Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Raul Gainetdinov
Raul Gainetdinov

Institute of Translational Biomedicine, St. Petersburg State University, Russia

Antti Niemi
Antti Niemi

Nordita, Sweden

Marat Yusupov
Marat Yusupov

Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, France

Judith Haendeler
Judith Haendeler

University Hospital Duesseldorf and IUF-Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Germany

Konstantin Lukyanov
Konstantin Lukyanov

Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of bioorganic chemistry RAS, Russia

Dieter Willbold
Dieter Willbold

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Valentin Gordeliy
Valentin Gordeliy

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Roman Efremov
Roman Efremov

Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Russia

Zhi-Jie Liu
Zhi-Jie Liu

iHuman Institute, ShanghaiTech University, China

Karl-Erich Jaeger
Karl-Erich Jaeger

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Yurii Krupyanskii
Yurii Krupyanskii

N. N. Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics RAS, Russia

Natalya Dudkina
Natalya Dudkina

Thermo Fisher Scientific

Ernst Bamberg
Ernst Bamberg

The Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Germany

Oxana Galzitskaya
Oxana Galzitskaya

Institute of Protein Research, Russia

Vladan Rankovic
Vladan Rankovic

Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Germany

Francisco Rodriguez-Valera
Francisco Rodriguez-Valera

Universidad Miguel Hernandez, Spain

Christoph Fahlke
Christoph Fahlke

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Martin Engelhard
Martin Engelhard

The Max Planck Institute of Physiology, Germany

Norbert Dencher
Norbert Dencher

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia / Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany

Olga Sokolova
Olga Sokolova

Moscow State University, Russia

Vadim Cherezov
Vadim Cherezov

Bridge Institute, USC, USA / Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Thomas Hauss
Thomas Hauss

Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Germany

Markus Sauer
Markus Sauer

University of Würzburg, Germany

Raymond Stevens
Raymond Stevens

Bridge Institute, USC, USA

Gleb Bourenkov
Gleb Bourenkov

European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL HAMBURG), Germany

Albert Guskov
Albert Guskov

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Andrei Lupas
Andrei Lupas

Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology, Germany

Igor Chizhov
Igor Chizhov

Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Dmitry Melnikov
Dmitry Melnikov

International Institute of Physics Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Georg Bueldt
Georg Bueldt

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Alain Milon
Alain Milon

IPBS - CNRS and Toulouse University, France

Gordon Leonard
Gordon Leonard

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France

Adrian Mancuso
Adrian Mancuso

European XFEL, Germany

Mike Heilemann
Mike Heilemann

Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Ivan Cornella-Taracido
Ivan Cornella-Taracido

Cedilla Therapeutics, Inc., USA

Vanessa Maybeck
Vanessa Maybeck

Research Centre Jülich, Germany

Djordje Musil
Djordje Musil

Merck KGaA, Germany

Alexander Molochkov
Alexander Molochkov

School of Biomedicine, Far Eastern Federal University, Russia

Andrei Gilep
Andrei Gilep

Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry NASB, Belarus

Alexey Rak
Alexey Rak

Sanofi, France

Wolfgang Voos
Wolfgang Voos

Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IBMB), University of Bonn, Germany

Manuel Etzkorn
Manuel Etzkorn

Institute of Physical Biology Heinrich-Heine-University, Germany

Vladimir Chupin
Vladimir Chupin

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Volker Busskamp
Volker Busskamp

Technical University of Dresden, Germany

Ivan Gushchin
Ivan Gushchin

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia

Alexander Popov
Alexander Popov

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), France

Wei Liu
Wei Liu

Biodesign Institute, Arizona State University, USA