The core research themes of the Heck-group is in the development of mass spectrometric methods applicable to the structural characterization of biomolecular systems, in relation to their biological function. Present activities are concentrated in two major areas;
– Mass spectrometry based proteomics
– Mass spectrometry based structural biology

Bioinformatics
We focus on the development and implementation of bioinformatics tools for proteomics research. Our work encompasses all levels of proteomics data processing. From raw data storage, pre/post processing and (quantitative) analysis of the results. For this we build databases and tools (with and without Graphical User Interfaces). More over we aid in the statistical analysis of the data at hand.

Additionally our bioinformatics research focussed also on the integration of proteomics and next generation sequencing data. Recently we gained interest in the evolutionary backgrounds of post translational protein modifications and more specifically the putative crosstalk between PTM’s (e.g. analogous to the histone code).