Professor Rasmus Linser Awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

Professor Rasmus Linser is conducting research at TU Dortmund University into biomolecular NMR spectroscopy: NMR stands for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance. This technology makes it possible to study in detail the functions of a cell’s various molecular components. In particular, it can be used to precisely elucidate the atomically resolved, three-dimensional structure of proteins, the mobility of the individual atoms within the molecule, and the interactions of the proteins with other molecules. This information gives researchers a better understanding of the functions of proteins both in healthy and defective cells and can also form the basis for developing new drugs.

However, since biomolecular NMR spectroscopy has so far tended to be limited to small, less complex proteins, the group led by Professor Rasmus Linser wants to develop a method that will extend analytical capabilities to larger and more complex proteins. To this end, within the ERC project now being funded, his team is combining methods in which target molecules are examined in the solution phase in a mostly natural environment with new solid-state NMR methods for which the target molecules are present as microcrystals in the solid phase. The aim is for the complex solid-state experiments to create a first, general approach for proteins in these molecular-weight ranges and thus form the basis for the subsequent study of the dynamics and interactions of proteins in the dissolved phase. New types of automated data processing and simulations of molecular dynamics supplement the experimental innovations.

Vita

Professor Rasmus Linser, born in 1980, has been Professor for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology of TU Dortmund University since 2018. After studying chemistry at the University of Göttingen and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and earning his doctoral degree in biophysics at the FMP (Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie) in Berlin, he spent four years at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney and at Harvard Medical School in Boston before starting a junior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen. In 2016, he was appointed as professor at LMU Munich. Among other awards, Rasmus Linser has received the Discovery Early Career Research Award of the Australian Research Council (ARC), an Emmy Noether Fellowship of the German Research Foundation and the Felix Bloch Lectureship, awarded by the GDCh (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker) for excellence in NMR spectroscopy.

At TU Dortmund University, where Professor Linser and his research group have built up an impressive inventory of NMR equipment, his team is developing and upgrading NMR methods for studying the fundamental principles of protein structure and dynamics in various biological contexts. Strong collaboration is characteristic of the group’s research work, which is also evident from its involvement in various Collaborative Research Centers and Clusters of Excellence such as RESOLV.

The ERC Consolidator Grant

With the ERC Consolidator Grant, the European Research Council supports excellent researchers who have been able to develop an outstanding scientific track record within a time frame of up to twelve years after their doctoral degree. The funding provides an opportunity to conduct particularly innovative pioneering work in the natural sciences. In the current round, about 14 percent of the approximately 2,200 applications from throughout Europe were selected for funding.

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