Head of Department "Chemical Biology"

Research Interests

The development and application of new methods for the deciphering and the design of biomolecular interactions is our primary goal and organic chemical synthesis our major approach towards this goal. An important strategic guide for us is the above evolutionary principle of selection from combinatorial diversity. We are, thus, applying simultaneous multiple as well as stochastic syntheses to the preparation of combinatorial compound libraries to be utilized as tools in structure/function analysis of biological molecules.
Thanks to the international large-scale genome sequencing efforts, we now possess complete knowledge of the genetic codes of man and model organisms. It is now the formidable task to address the function of these genes and their products. As function is tantamount to interaction, our approaches to the systematic analysis of ligands for biological targets receive a novel significance in the context of functional genome analysis. In this genomic era, traditional genetic and biochemical approaches are no longer sufficient to process or take advantage of the vast amount of DNA sequence information. Complementary to large-scale DNA mutagenesis and RNA interference studies, chemical compound libraries are particularly suited for genome-wide high-throughput experiments: chemical genomics.

Curriculum vitae/Publications

Mailing address:
Ronald Frank
German Research Centre for Biotechnology
Mascheroder Weg 1
D-38124 Braunschweig

E-mail: rfr@gbf.de
Office: Chemical Biology
Phone: +49 531 6181 720
Fax: +49 531 6181 795