Macromolecular Biochemistry

Macromolecular Biochemistry is a section of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry at Leiden University, comprising the PIs Marcellus Ubbink, Remus Dame, Lars Jeuken, Anne Wentink, Sebastian Geibel, Anjali Pandit, René Olsthoorn, Alia, and Steffen Brünle.

The research is aimed at understanding peptide, protein & nucleic acid structure, function interactions and evolution. In particular, the MacBio group studies the molecular mechanisms, biomacromolecular interactions and function of:

• modern and ancestral enzymes related to antibiotic resistance (Prof. Ubbink),
• protein - DNA interactions in chromatin organisation (Prof. Dame),
• membrane enzymes in bioenergetics and biotechnology (Prof. Jeuken),
• protein aggregation and chaperones in neurodegenerative diseases (Dr. Wentink),
• membrane proteins in photosynthesis and artificial photosynthesis (Dr. Pandit),
• RNA structure and RNA-protein interaction (Dr. Olsthoorn),
• protein aggregation and protein-nanoparticle interaction in the brain (Dr. Alia)
• membrane proteins active in secretion by pathogenic mycobacteria (Dr. Geibel),
• membrane proteins, in particular GPCR, in human cell signalling (Dr. Brünle)

The section houses a well-equipped facility for recombinant protein production. We apply a variety of biophysical characterisation methods to study the structure and function of biomacromolecules and their interactions, including:

• nuclear magnetic resonance (Prof. Ubbink, Dr. Pandit, Dr. Alia)
• single-particle cryo-EM (Dr. Brünle, Dr. Geibel, Prof. Jeuken)
• protein crystallography and X-ray diffraction (Dr. Brünle, Prof. Ubbink)
• time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (Dr. Pandit, Prof. Jeuken)
• (single-molecule) fluorescence microscopy (Dr. Wentink, Prof. Dame), tethered-particle motion microscopy (Prof. Dame)
• optical tweezers (Prof. Dame)
• bioelectrochemistry (Prof. Jeuken)
• absorption spectroscopy for enzyme kinetics (Prof. Ubbink)
• intact-protein mass spectrometry (all)
• laboratory evolution techniques (Prof. Ubbink)