Scientific Achievements

• Total synthesis of FAD and FMN analogues and their application for probing stereo-specificities of flavin cofactors in enzymatic reactions.

• Pioneering work on the molecular genetic manipulation of the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum.

• Key contributions to the development and application of molecular genetics, transient kinetics, and hybrid structural biology approaches for the elucidation of myosin and dynamin function, structure, and regulation.

• Establishment of the first recombinant expression system for the production of functional myosin motors.

• Application of protein engineering approaches leading to the elucidation of the fundamental principles governing myosin directionality and chemomechanical coupling.

• Engineering of single-polypeptide myosin motors with enhanced stability and motility for use in biohybrid devices.

• Structural characterization of the actomyosin complexes produced in Dictyostelium and human cells and elucidation of their involvement in cytokinesis and cell motility.

• Structure-based identification of multi-site allostery in the myosin motor domain and characterization of several class-specific small molecule modulators of cytoskeletal myosins.

• First description of a pharmacological chaperone for cardiac ß-myosin. Addition of the small molecule to the functionally impaired target protein leads to full restoration of myosin motor activity in a time and concentration dependent manner.

• Elucidation of the function of cytoskeletal tropomyosins in controlling the motor activity and dynamic behavior of myosins in an isoform-specific manner.