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Prof. Dr. Roland Brock Our group is interested in two fields: Signal transduction in T cells and molecular targeting of cells. Signal transduction in T lymphocytes is a paradigm for the ability of cells to respond specifically to a multitude of external signals. These signals are integrated in highly complex molecular networks. We develop and apply novel strategies in order to dissect such signaling networks on the molecular level. For this purpose we integrate approaches from biophysics, bioorganic chemistry and cell biology, with fluorescence microscopy and peptide microarrays playing major roles. The role of individual steps in signal transduction for the generation of a cellular response is addressed by incubating cells with pharmacological inhibitors. A more applied aspect of this latter approach is the question in which way the activity of a drug is influenced by the simultaneous activation of several signaling pathways - a question of major relevance for the early recognition of potential side effects in drug development. For molecular targeting, we have intensively studied the cellular uptake of cationic cell-penetrating peptides. These studies led to the discovery of a new and rapid uptake mechanism. More recently we explored the coupling of peptides to polymers. In this way we can easily combine functionalities. Moreover, we showed that this strategy increases the activity of peptides. |
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Recent key publications
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