Biophysical Chemistry

Research

In living cells confinement, molecular crowding and heterogeneity of local environments play a major role in the action of biomolecules. We investigate the influence of cellular physiology on transcription and translation machinery, cell-to-cell variability, and ultimately cellular function. We largely focus on three areas of study: 

1. Underlying molecular kinetics and circuit architectures that drive cellular reaction dynamics. 
2. Physical phenomena that impact reaction dynamics such as reaction versus (sub)diffusion kinetics, spontaneous self-organization, and confinement. 
3. Memory development of cellular reactions. 

Our long-term goal is to quantify the factors influencing gene expression dynamics, and ultimately develop a prediction-based tool to estimate the amount of mRNA or protein in any cell at any given time with great accuracy.  Achieving this goal will open a world of possibilities, ranging from data-driven monitoring of gene expression, to therapeutics that allow us to identify cancerous cells before they evolve. For more details see Hansen Lab.

Due to the mutual research interests, the department works closely together with the Huck group (Physical Organic Chemistry).

Publications

Internships

Would you like to do your internship at Biophysical Chemistry? We welcome students from a wide range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) molecular biology, cell biology, biophysics, physical chemistry, organic chemistry, and computational biology. Please get in touch with dr. Maike Hansen to discuss prospective projects.

The research group offers various Bachelor's and Master's courses, as well as incidental courses. The group is closely involved in the Bachelor's Chemistry, Molecular Life Sciences and Science and the Master's specialisations of Molecular Sciences.