Frank Götz, PhD

Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin

Our working group of Enno Klußmann at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch is looking for a way to help patients suffering from cardiac insufficiency. Our approach seeks to influence the interaction of certain proteins, i.e. the A-kinase anchoring proteins (AKAPs). Our focus lies on the interaction of AKAPs with the protein kinase A (PKA). We discovered small molecules, which inhibit AKAP-PKA interactions in vitro and in cultured cardiac myocytes. In addition to standard methods for studying protein-protein interactions like Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC) we used successfully Microscale Thermophoresis (MST) from NanoTemper for analysing and optimising these small molecules. This easy to handle method allowed us to determine KD-values for our poorly soluble small molecules even in the micro molar range whereas we failed with ITC.