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Talk by Thorben Cordes

Title: "From structural to functional dynamics of single membrane transporters"
Occasion: GDCh-Kolloquium
Start: 02.12.2025, 16:15
Location: CellNanOs, 38/201

About the speaker: Prof. Dr. Thorben Cordes conducts research at the Technical University in Dortmund.

Membrane transporters are prime targets for current and future pharmaceutical drugs due to their involvement in numerous cellular processes that can cause human diseases, bacterial pathogenicity, drug resistance, and other medical phenomena. Whereas the identification and structural analysis of transporters has moved at great pace, there is still an urgent need to better understand molecular mechanisms that can facilitate the development of new therapies, e.g., through the identification of inhibitors. In my talk, I will present work on the optical investigation of active membrane transporters using single-molecule approaches, e.g., Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), which is capable to monitor structural dynamics in real time.

First, I will provide an overview of our mechanistic contributions to the field of ABC importers and exporters, and I will present unpublished data on new biophysical methods that allow the characterization of functional dynamics in single membrane transporters.