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SilverSURF Environmental pollution with harmful quantities of heavy metal ions has become an urgent problem in these times. SilverSURF makes use of the flagellar filament that represents one of the largest scaffolds in nature, and combines it with the unique potential of high-affinity metal-binding domains. Specifically, we rationally designed synthetic flagellar filaments able to bind huge quantities of the metal ion silver and copper.

CancerSURF Lung cancer is one of the most malignant cancers with poor prognosis. Next to the common therapies like surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy, antibody therapy is more specific. CancerSURF combines the scaffold of a tetrameric Streptavidin to increase the specificity of a DARPin to detect a prominent tumor marker of lung cancer cells, called EpCAM. This system can find several approaches in medical treatment, for example serving as an inhaled alternative to chemotherapy or as a diagnostic tool via surgery, indicating remaining tumor cells.

RiboSURF Ribosomes synthesize proteins from amino acids using mRNA as blueprint and tRNAs delivering amino acids. However, the natural ability of ribosomes is limited to 20 L-amino acids. Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) synthesize only small peptides, however, from a large number of natural and non-proteinogenic amino acids. RiboSURF aims at combining the huge repertoire of NRPSs with ribosomal protein synthesis to extend the synthetic scope of the ribosome. Specifically; we designed and probed the potential of synthetic catalysts that allow the aminoacetylation of tRNAs with non-proteinogenic amino acids.

SURFkiller The work with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) harbours the risk of their release to the nature. After release, serious consequences such as gene exchange with unmodified organism or ecosystem imbalance cannot be excluded. It is necessary to keep GMOs isolated from the environment or to make their survival in nature impossible. For this purpose, we decided to develop a security system for Bacillus subtilis. This system is based on one of the cells most important compartment- the ribosome. Ribosomes are essential as they are responsible for the protein synthesis and a loss of them leads to a halt of protein biosynthesis resulting in a rapid cell death.