Protein Evolution

The Basic Building Blocks of Life

Director: Andrei Lupas
Assistant: María José Prieto
Phone: +49 7071 601-340
Fax: +49 7071 601-349

Staff: Alphabetical List | Alumni
References: Publication List

Introduction

Proteins are essential building blocks of all living cells; indeed, life can be viewed as resulting substantially from the chemical activity of proteins. Because of their importance, it is hardly surprising that ancestors for most proteins observed today were already present at the time of the 'last common ancestor', a primordial organism from which all life on Earth is descended. How did the first proteins arise? How does their sequence of amino acids enable their chemical activity? These questions are at the center of our scientific efforts at our Department of Protein Evolution.

Research Topics

Resources

• MPI bioinformatics toolkit (Toolkit Server)
• Three-dimensional structures (X-ray crystallography structures, NMR structures, Computational models)
• Algorithms and software to assist bioinformatics analyses (Software)
• Teaching (Courses & Lectures)

For more information:

How Did the Three-Dimensional Structures of Proteins Evolve in Nature? | Latest Thinking (lt.org)