Our scientific background lies in the areas of photochemistry, physical-organic chemistry, and radical chemistry. We use the expertise in molecular science to address fundamental problems in the life sciences, for example, the kinetics of protein folding and the natural antioxidant action of vitamin C and E. Our basic research bears implications for several systems of biological and food-industry-related interest and leads frequently to practical applications in pharmaceutical industry and medical diagnostics. Examples are the development of an antioxidant sensor for human blood plasma and the application of novel lifetime-based fluorescence assays for high-throughput screening for drug discovery.

One aspect of our work lies on the synthesis and characterization of organic chromophores and in particular fluorescent probes. Our spectroscopic experience ranges from fast time-resolved techniques (laser-flash photolysis, time-resolved fluorescence, time-correlated single-photon counting) to conventional fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry and NMR spectroscopy. In addition, we have a keen interest in the development of kinetic models, which includes the analysis of complex kinetic data by advanced computer-based approaches like the development of global fitting and numerical integration routines. An independent section of our research is involved with the area of supramolecular chemistry and nanomolecular science, which has an important interface to the life sciences in the area of nanobiotechnology.