Dr Matthias Stein

Research Interests (to be completed)

Systems Biology
In systems biology, one aims at the simulation of biochemical processes by a description of mathematical equations. In order to set up such a mathemical model, kinetic parameters are required. For enzymes, these may be Km or kcat/Km values. Very often these parameters were not determined experimentally, or deteremined for a different species or obtained under different experimental conditions. A comparative approach can be used to estimate enzymatic kinetic parameters from their similarites of 3D interaction fields, such as the electrostatic potential.
Molecular Systems Biology
Strucural modelling of the key players in metabolic and signalling pathways and their interactions.
[NiFe] Hydrogenases
[NiFe] hydrogenases catalyze the heterolytic disssociation of molecular hydrogen. They utilize a heterobimetallic NiFe active site cluster to accomplish this task. A combination of spectroscopy and calculations is needed to unravel the enzyme's reaction mechanism.
[FeFe]Hydrogenases and Synthetic Model Complexes
[Fe]-only hydrogenases catalyze primarily the reverse reaction: the production of H2 from protons and electrons. The investigation of the mechanism of this enzyme and related synthetic model complexes has relevance to the biological production of hydrogen.