Most diseases can be pinned down to specific biochemical processes, their understanding and modulation requiring expertise in biochemistry, biophysics, and chemical syntheses. This specific research programme therefore combines these disciplines to elucidate molecular structures and interactions at atomic resolution, and to develop molecules that specifically interact with biological factors for their use as research tools or as leads for future medical drugs. Biochemical and structural approaches are not only instrumental for the design and generation of compounds modulating biological processes but they also provide a precise mechanistic understanding of the mechanisms of drug action. Moreover, the task of the programme is the development and use of computational methods including bioinformatics, molecular modelling, cheminformatics, biostatistics and systems biology. These computational approaches are necessary to handle, analyse, and exploit the wealth of data generated by modern experimental methods, and to guide further experiments.

Participating ZMB members: