The Research Training Group (RTG) “Bioactive Peptides – Innovative Aspects of Synthesis and Biosynthesis” aims to provide a structured curriculum on peptide research for doctoral students. In the past years, peptide research has become of significant importance in both academia and industry, and there is a high demand of well-trained and knowledgeable researchers in this field. Although a number of individual groups perform peptide research in Germany at a very high level, the scientific breadth of researchers in Berlin in all areas related to modern peptide science is unique. Consequently, this RTG brings together the scientific expertise of several internationally renowned academic researchers in order to comprehensively train students in peptide research.
Various industrial peptide scientists give lectures and distinguished researchers take part in an advisory board, which is further complemented by the faculty. This setup allows us to provide a modern educational program for doctoral students. The scientific content of the RTG comprises aspects of molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, synthetic techniques and methods providing a state-of-the-art bioanalytical and structural biological characterization of peptides, thereby spanning all areas of modern peptide research. The involvement of two computational chemistry groups reflects the increasing importance of theoretical methods as tools to guide synthesis design and to provide models for understanding the structure and dynamics of peptides. Equal opportunity employment and gender equality are important to all members of the RTG and are thus reflected in its make-up, with almost equal representation of the genders.
The RTG SynPepBio offers a coherent curriculum that coveys the basic scientific concepts as well as more advanced subject matters. This makes students aware of the scientific challenges and modern problems of the field and provides didactically structured supervision within the frame of the individual research projects. The participating doctoral students will be funded either directly by the RTG or by other funds of the principal investigators (PIs). Apart from academic lectures of the PIs, the teaching program is supported by courses from industrial researchers as well as international academic key players in the peptide community. The scientific training program is complemented by training in transferable skills, thus fully preparing students for their future career.