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https://www.biochemieiv-bpc.uni-bayreuth.de/en/methods/index.html

FACULTY OF BIOLOGY, CHEMISTRY & EARTH SCIENCES

Biochemistry IV - Biophysical Chemistry - Prof. Dr. Janosch Hennig

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NMR building inside

Methods

Methods used at BCIV

We currently use all structural biology methods, ranging from NMR spectroscopy to cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography and small-angle scattering. Our chair hosts the high-field state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers of the North Bavarian NMR Centre (NBNC), including 600, 700, 900 MHz and the 1 GHz spectrometers. The 700, 900 and 1GHz spectrometer are equipped with cryo probes. We therefore have a focus on employing NMR to understand biomolecular systems, i.e. structure and dynamics and their relation to function.

NMR is a very powerful and versatile technique, enabling us to probe interactions between biomolecules (protein-protein, protein-peptide, protein-RNA, protein-DNA, protein-small molecule, RNA-RNA etc. interactions) and to assess dynamics of our samples in all time scales ranging from picoseconds to days (see below). The latter is especially useful for studying the dark matter of the proteome, namely intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and their involvement in biomolecular condensation. For more details about NMR see below.

We have frequent beam time for X-ray crystallography and small angle scattering at the ESRF Grenoble and DESY Hamburg synchrotrons. Cryo-EM we currently use via our co-affiliation with the EMBL Heidelberg until end of 2025.

We further enrich and accelerate our research with usage of AI-based structure prediction methods.

Apart from that, we have the following biophysical instruments in our labs (see also gallery below): CD spectroscopy, fluorescence spectrophotometry (also 96-well plate reader), fluorescent gel reader etc. and will invest further during the next three years. We have a fully operational new Thermofisher Vitrobot system in-house to prepare cryo-EM grids.

To prepare our samples, we have state-of-the-art molecular biology facilities for protein expression in E. coli and insect cells (dedicated lab) as well as for RNA in vitro transcription. We have four high-end FPLC systems (Biorad-NGC and Äkta Purifier) for biomolecular sample purification and an HPLC for RNA purification. We have an entire lab dedicated for RNA research (incl. radioactively labelled RNA).” Pictures of all facilities are shown below.

 

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR):

Read more about NMR as tool for analyzing biomolecular dynamics:Hide
Read more about modern NMR data acquisition and processing:Hide
Read more about NMR-based structure determination:Hide

Photo gallery

The 1 GHz spectrometer

 
 
The 1 GHz spectrometer

The 900 MHz spectrometer    

 
 
The 900 MHz spectrometer

The 700 MHz spectrometer

 
 
The 700 MHz spectrometer

The 600 MHz spectrometer

 
 
The 600 MHz spectrometer

Lab for bacterial protein expression

 
 
Lab for bacterial protein expression

Lab for protein harvest

 
 
Lab for protein harvest

Sonicator

 
 
Sonicator

FPLC 1

 
 
FPLC 1 (Biorad NGC, another one at EMBL)

FPLC-2

 
 
FPLC 2 (Äkta Purifier)

FPLC-3

 
 
FPLC 3 (room temperature)

FPLC-4

 
 
FPLC 4

RNA preparative and analytical laboratory

 
 
RNA preparative and analytical laboratory

Phosphorimager

 
 
Image Plate Scanner / Phosphorimager

Our big lab

 
 
Our big lab

DNA-protein gels

 
 
Agarose gels and SDS-PAGE Electrophoresis

Gel documentation

 
 
Gel documentation for Agarose gels and SDS-PAGE

Cold room, no beer inside!

 
 
Cold room, no beer inside!

Cell culture lab (e.g. insect cell culture)

 
 
Cell culture lab (e.g. insect cell culture)

Fluorescent 96-well plate reader

 
 
Fluorescent 96-well plate reader

CD spectrophotometer

 
 
CD spectrophotometer

Gel documentation for fluorescent gels

 
 
Gel documentation for fluorescent gels

HPLC (incl.- set up for large-scale RNA purification)

 
 
HPLC (incl.- set up for large-scale RNA purification)

Our lab for preparing cryo-EM grids

 
 
Our lab for preparing cryo-EM grids

Our Vitrobot and glow discharger for cryo-EM 
grid preparation

 
 
Our Vitrobot and glow discharger for cryo-EM grid preparation

GPU workstation for cryo-EM data processing (1 of 2)

 
 
GPU workstation for cryo-EM data processing (1 of 2)

Our kitchen

 
 
Our kitchen


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