Life relies on the interactions of proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. Our research aims to understand the physics behind the structure and function of these biomolecules at the molecular level. We use high performance computing and sophisticated numerical methods to resolve the motion of each atom in the system. This allows us to unravel essential physiological processes ranging from ion binding to active binding sites to the folding and function of biomacromolecules.

One particularly exciting example is ribonucleic acid (RNA), a topic that has received significant scientific attention since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, our research focuses on the question how metal ions influence the structure and function of RNA or how mRNA can be transported efficiently by lipid nanoparticles.