Böcking Group: Molecular Machines

To combat viruses, host cells have developed weapons to sabotage the delivery of viral genetic code into their nuclei. There are specialised proteins that either prematurely crack open the protective viral capsid encasing the virus—exposing its genetic material to degradation—or lock the DNA in so it cannot enter the nucleus.

Till Böcking wants to understand how these and other molecular machines work.

By reconstituting these protein interactions—and watching them work using single molecule imaging—Till can see just what is required for the machines to run. He also hopes his findings will help in drug design to improve these machines and fight disease.

We develop fluorescence imaging approaches to visualise the dynamics of self-assembly processes at the single molecule level. The advantage of single molecule measurements is that they can resolve the kinetics of processes without the need for synchronisation and permit the detection of short-lived intermediates in the reaction pathways that are otherwise averaged out in traditional ensemble measurements.

Our work draws on approaches from the physical sciences with development of microfluidic imaging devices, surface chemistry approaches and development of automated image analysis software.