Prof. Dr. Rebecca Wade

• Group leader of the Molecular and Cellular Modeling (MCM) group at HITS
• Professor at the Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie (ZMBH), Heidelberg University
• Group leader in the DKFZ-ZMBH Alliance
• Group leader at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR)

Short biography

Rebecca Wade studied at the University of Oxford (B.A. Hons. in physics, 1985; D. Phil. in Molecular Biophysics, 1988). She then carried out postdoctoral research at the universities of Houston and Illinois before taking up a position as a group leader in the Structural and Computational Biology Programme at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg in 1992. Rebecca Wade set up the Molecular and Cellular Modeling Group at HITS (which was then known as the European Media Laboratory and later as EML Research) in 2001. She was Adjunct Professor at the International University in Germany in Bruchsal from 2001-2003. Rebecca Wade was appointed full Professor at Heidelberg University in 2012 and is a member of the Faculty of Biosciences. She was Scientific Director of HITS from 2015 to 2016.

Research interests

In the Molecular and Cellular Modeling group, our main focus is on proteins and finding out how they interact with their molecular binding partners and function. We develop and apply computational approaches to address questions such as: How do proteins recognize and distinguish their binding partners? How tightly and quickly do they bind? By what mechanisms do they bind? Can binding partners and binding modes be predicted? Our studies are mostly based on the three-dimensional structures of macromolecules. We aim to make concerted use of bioinformatics and physical simulation approaches in order to develop methods for understanding how biomolecules work and for aiding the rational design of therapeutic agents. Techniques cover a wide spectrum from interactive, web-based visualization tools to machine learning to molecular and Brownian dynamics simulations. Applications range from in-depth simulation studies of particular proteins to large-scale computational analysis of protein families.

Professional activities and awards

• Associate Editor: Journal of Molecular Recognition; PLoS Computational Biology
• Editorial Board: Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling; Journal of Computer-Aided Molecular Design; Biopolymers; Protein Engineering, Design and Selection; BBA General Subjects
• Member: Managing Board of Directors: Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) (since 2020); Steering committee: Thematic Research Network „Molecular Mechanisms in health and disease – from understanding to engineering (MINDS)“, Univ. Heidelberg (since 2020).
• Faculty member: HGS MathComp Graduate School; Heidelberg Biosciences International Graduate School (HBIGS); Helmholtz Information & Data Science School for Health (HIDSS4Health)
• Member of Scientific Advisory Board: Leibniz-Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP), Berlin-Buch (2013-2020); Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt (since 2015); Computational Biology Unit (CBU), University of Bergen, Norway (since 2018)
• Mentor (2013-2017): BioMedX, Team SKI – Selective Kinase Inhibitors, Heidelberg
• Councillor (2010-2012): ISQBP (International Society of Quantum Biology and Pharmacology)
• Recipient of the 2004 Hansch Award of the QSAR and Modelling Society
• Recipient of the 2016 International Society of Quantum Biology and Pharmacology (ISQBP) Award in Computational Biology
• Molecular Graphics and Modeling Society (MGMS) 2020 Lecture tour, UK

Publications

The MCM group publication list can be found here and Rebecca Wade’s Google Scholar listing is here

Teaching

Teaching activities are listed here