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The Department of Biological Physical Chemistry, established following the restructuring of the IQFR in April 2010, encompasses the old Departments of Molecular Structure & Spectroscopy, Biophysics, and Physical Chemistry of Biological Macromolecules.

One of the principle scientific challenges today is to understand in detail the functioning of biological systems that perform vital processes. Tackling this challenge requires an approach that combines Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Therefore, solving the structure of individual biomolecules and of their complexes with other molecules, the identification of the forces that determine its structure, assembly and stability as well as their interactions with the surrounding medium constitute a passionate scene of great scientific interest. To address the questions that arise in this field, multidisciplinary studies are necessary to obtain a detailed description of the biological processes from in depth knowledge of the components of the system and the physical chemical bases that govern it.

Our Department brings together a number of laboratories specializing in different methodologies, in particular different spectroscopies and various biochemical, structural biological and cell and molecular biological techniques. This scientific expertise, combined with an advanced instrumentation, make it possible to take on challenging projects such as the study of highly complex systems, transient complexes, the interaction of macromolecules & ligands and their structure & dynamics. The advance in the comprehension of these systems, while important for its own sake, is also fundamental to understand and monitor the molecular processes underlying human diseases as well as to design inhibitors or modulators of these processes; i.e. pharmaceuticals drugs, that can improve our quality of life.

This Department aims to combine the efforts of the different groups in this research area and take advantage of the multidisciplinary experience within a common structure in the heart of the Rocasolano Institute of Physical Chemistry.