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Research groups
Small Biosystems Lab
Programme: Nanomedicine
Lead Researcher: Ritort Farran, Félix
Group members
STAFF MEMBERS: Pastor del Campo, Isabel.
ASSOCIATED MEMBERS: Palassini, Matteo.
CONTRIBUTORS: Alemany, Anna | Camuñas Soler, Joan | Mañosas Castejón, Maria | Ribezzi Crivellari, Marco.
Main lines of research
The research group led by Dr. Ritort investigates the energetic of biological processes at the molecular level in the broadest sense, from the fundamental understanding of irreversible phenomena at the mi- croscopic scale to the most advanced applications that can characterize and measure molecular inter- actions with a resolution of tenths of kilocalories per mole (kcal/mol). All this is done through a multidis- ciplinary approach combining single molecule ex- periments and biochemical measures of phenome- nological theories used in the field of biophysics, as well as fundamental principles of statistical physics applied to physicochemical systems out of equilib- rium.
Characterized the broad perspective our research gives a wide range of applications ranging from the study of the binding of a peptide to protein, aggre- gation kinetics of complexes formed by drugs that
bind to nucleic acids and the study of interactions antigen-antibody.
Our group is internationally recognized for having made fundamental advances in the understanding and characterization of the energetic of folding and assembly of nucleic acids, characterization of mo- lecular motors that regulate DNA replication and fundamental theories describing the behavior of dis- ordered systems out of equilibrium. Over the com- ing years we will continue working on these lines of research that have proved so profitable. However, the overture to begin a new line related to the fun- damental problem of molecular evolution in order to better understand the physical principles that de- scribe the increasing complexity and diversification of mutant molecular populations. The objectives set by the group are listed below:
90 I Annual report 2015 I CIBER-BBN