Our department is heavily involved in vertebrate genome analysis. We largely use array technology and pioneered most of the robotic technology which makes such arrays commercially available. While the labs core focus is the continuing development of new and better technologies, many groups are applying the latest high throughput techniques to their area of interest.

The department can be broken down into several areas:

1. Automation and miniturisation.

2. High throughput hybridisation and image analysis.

3. Physical mapping and genomic sequencing of human X and human 2 (we have now finished the complete seuqence of 21, see http://chr21.molgen.mpg.de/ for more information).

4. High throughput protein expression, purification, grystalisation and crystallography.

5. High throughput phage antibody generation.

6. Automated two hybrid system (protein-protein interactions).

7. The mechanism of glutamine repeat diseases (Huntingtons Chorea
and Machado-Josef Disease) -- See http://www.molgen.mpg.de/~agwanker/ for more information.

8. Using cDNA arrays to study gene expression and DNA copy number changes in normal and treated cancers, cell lines, tissues, embryos and biopsies of patients with cardiac myopathies.

9. Physical mapping of the mouse. rat and zebrafish genomes.

10. Isolation of the majority of genes of the zebrafish, amphioxus and sea urchin.