My research interests are focused on the structure and function of membrane proteins. Membrane proteins provide essential functions such as information transfer, energy production and transport. In addition, they are important pharmaceutical targets. Further structural insights into this important class of proteins will increase our knowledge of biological mechanisms and help create more specific drugs.

My work combines biosynthetic incorporation of isotope labeled amino acids into proteins, their purification and reconstitution into membranes or membrane mimicking systems. Structural information of these samples is obtained in biophysical experiments, mainly solid state NMR and FTIR. Further information is provided by work with synthetic peptides. Computational methods complement the experimental observations to characterize the nature and distribution of amino acids in the interiors of membrane proteins. Our findings have led to a novel method, called helix packing moments, for predicting the transmembrane helix interfaces.

My current work focuses on the molecular mechanisms of G protein-coupled receptor activation.