Molecular Systems Biology

The Molecular Systems Biology Unit investigates molecular structure, organization and function at a systematic level in and across cells.

We aim to gain quantitative and mechanistic insights into how molecular machines, pathways and other cellular functional units operate and coordinate in the cell, across evolutionary, temporal and spatial scales, and in fluctuating environments. Being at the forefront of technology development, the Unit integrates research to systematically quantify protein levels and states; map and predict protein and RNA structure, evolution, dynamics and interactions; view macromolecular organization and complexes in situ; and perturb macromolecular function and map its functional output. Integrated structural biology, systematic genetics and quantitative genome-wide measurements are instrumental for the generation of respective data, whereas computational biology and modelling play a central role in integrating them. With a stronghold in structural, computational and systems biology, the Unit pioneers technologies and large-scale data integration to study biological processes in the context of the cell, organism, community and ecosystem.

The MSB Unit embraces the rapid advances in structural biology approaches, AI-based structure prediction and structural bioinformatics, functional omics and modelling approaches, aiming towards holistic perspectives of protein/RNA networks and quantitative understanding of dynamic macromolecular systems. The synergy between experimental and computational groups within the Unit and across EMBL enables the integration of complex heterogeneous data across scales. This integration requires a multitude of approaches and technology development at the cutting edge: single-molecule biophysics, structural biology and cryogenic electron microscopy imaging to investigate macromolecular function in context; high-throughput genetics and biochemistry, as well as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics to systematically study and perturb functional units; and computational approaches and models to analyze, interpret and integrate the information. Within this framework, a wide variety of biological contexts and processes are studied. Microbial cells, communities and their interactions with their hosts and the environment is one of the common threads within the Unit.

Technologies developed in the Unit are disseminated in scientific services at EMBL, including the EMBL Imaging Center, Cryo-EM platform, the Metabolomics, Microbial Automation & Culturomics and Proteomics Core Facilities. All groups in the Unit are engaged in EMBL’s current research program, Molecules to ecosystems, shaping many of the new scientific directions in Planetary Biology, Microbial Ecosystems and Infection Biology.