The Deindl laboratory at the University of Tübingen is currently being established in the context of an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship, with the goal of building a dynamic research program at the interface of structural and single-molecule biology.
We investigate how biomolecular structure and dynamics give rise to function. By combining structural, single-molecule, spectroscopic, and biochemical approaches, we seek to develop a quantitative framework for understanding biomolecular mechanisms. A central goal of our work is to bridge the gap between static structural snapshots, obtained primarily by cryo-electron microscopy, and the dynamic behavior of individual biomolecules revealed by single-molecule techniques.
Within this framework, our research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of nucleic acid-interacting proteins and protein assemblies, particularly those involved in the regulation of gene expression in chromatin contexts. To study their often sequence-dependent dynamics, we are pioneering new methods in single-molecule fluorescence microscopy, including highly multiplexed approaches that allow us to observe molecular processes across millions of individual molecules representing thousands of sequences or barcoded entities.
This combination of structural analysis and newly developed single-molecule methods enables us to address fundamental questions in chromatin biology. The packaging of eukaryotic DNA into chromatin allows differential genome organization and gives rise to diverse transcriptional programs from a single genetic blueprint. Misregulation of chromatin states is strongly linked to developmental disorders and diseases such as cancer, yet the molecular mechanisms by which these states are established, maintained, and interpreted remain incompletely understood. We study chromatin-interacting proteins and complexes to uncover the structures and dynamics that underlie their function, ultimately advancing a quantitative and mechanistic understanding of fundamental chromatin transactions.
Expert for molecular machines: Humboldt Professor Sebastian Deindl (YouTube, Alexander von Humbold Stiftung)
