Volkhard Helms's Biography

Volkhard Helms, Chair of Computational Biology, Universitat des Saarlandes

Volkhard Helms studied physics at the Universities of Freiburg and Munich. He did his PhD research at EMBL Heidelberg, working in the group of Dr. Rebecca Wade on cytochrome P450s, and obtained a PhD in physics in 1996. As post-doctoral fellow at UC San Diego with Prof.J.Andrew McCammon he used computer simulations to study ligand recognition by protein kinases and the photophysics of the green fluorescent protein. From 1998-2003, Volkhard Helms led a junior research group at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics in Frankfurt, where his group studied proton translocation events and the mechanistics of protein-protein interactions. He obtained his habilitation in physics in 2002. In 2003, he was appointed professor for bioinformatics at the Center for Bioinformatics of Saarland University in Saarbrücken. In 2001, he received the EMBO young investigator award. His current research focuses on biomolecular interactions involving proteins and DNA, predicting structural and functional features of transmembrane proteins, epigenetic control of cell differentiation, and antibiotic resistance