Data Mining and Machine Learning
Automatic enumeration of a combinatorial Library for virtual screening.
Chemist
& Wildlife Photographer
I am a chemist by training working for Chemical Computing Group in Cologne as a Principal Scientist. My professional focus is software supported drug design. I am not doing the actual drug design but am involved in applying computer methods to predict biologic activity of compounds and development of new methods in that field. Between 2012 and 2016 I was a board member of the CIC section of the German Chemical Society. In my private life I am a wildlife photographer. But even as I see myself as a underwater photographer, that does not exclude visiting Zoos, Natural Reserves and nearby forests always looking for good motives. Another of my hobby is tropical fish keeping. I have been breeding Central American cichlids for many years and I am a member of the German Cichlid Association.
There are trillions of possible chemical structures. This vast number makes it impossible to screen them all in order to find an active lead molecule. Molecular Modelling is a collection of methods allowing to predict biological activity of a virtual compound before it is even synthesized. This reduces the number of required animal tests and allows focused synthesis of highly promising compounds.
Automatic enumeration of a combinatorial Library for virtual screening.
Electrostatic potential mapped on the molecule surface of Molnupiravir (SARS-Cov2)
Superposition of several spike protein (SARS-Cov2) variants color coded by sequence similarity
Quantitave Structure Activity Relationship based on a 3D alignment of various PDK 1 inhibitors (Breast cancers)
Extraction of a non bonded interasction pattern based on retroviral transcriptases (HIV)
Soon after becoming a certified Open Water Diver, I started taking photos of the under water wonderland. My first camera was a compact but with increasing ambitions I had to switch to a DSLR with housing and strobes. The focusing speed under low light conditions makes DSLR superior over any other system. I also upgraded my dive gear to a Razor2 sidemount configuration giving me the redundancy and buoyancy control required for photo dives.
Dive Site: Utopia Beach House Reef, El Quesir, Egypt
Dive Site: Utopia Beach House Reef, El Quesir, Egypt
Dive Site: Gut Widdauen, Germany
Dive Site: Utopia Beach Hausriff, El Quesir, Ägypten
Dive Site: Angermund, Germany
Dive Site: Utopia Beach House Reef, El Quesir, Egypt
While you can be certain to find some nice motives in a zoo, taking pictures in the wild is far more challenging. You will need a lot of patience, luck and good equiment. Beside some larger species we have a lot of interesting small species in our area, that make excellent motives for macro.
I often spend weekends in zoos. I not only try to study animal behavior there but also try to take pictures of the best moments.
I started keeping tropical fish in the age of 12. When I first got aCanon T70 camera I began experimenting with photography. I really got stared when I got a T90 with flash TTL. Then it took me quite some time to make the transition to a DSLR because I found the quality of digital ../images not convincing. That changed only a few years ago. Today I'm working with a Conon R5, EX580 flash and several Macro lenses.
In my blog I will show selcted photos from my trips and zoos I visited. I will also publish longer texts about topics that are of interest for me on a regular basis.