The strictly molecular approach pursued in chemistry has increasingly been taken up by the sciences with a biological orientation, and permits numerous new insights with regard to the functionality of biomolecules, their interactions both at the internal level and with their environments, as well as their synthesis. The questions to which they give rise are highly complex and require high-performance analysis. The Faculty of Chemistry has an excellent international reputation in this field, which is based on many decades of successful research with regard to full and rapid analysis.

One focus is on the combination of separation procedures and ultra-high sensitivity methods of analysis for determining (increasingly often by mass spectrometry) as many different components per single sample as possible. This permits the specific screening of cell systems to explore functional relationships, and requires both the further development of the corresponding instruments and new methods in bioinformatics. This enables the identification and, consequently, the exact quantification of, for instance, proteins, peptides, and potential marker molecules. New methods have thus been established in bioanalysis and environmental analysis, in order to examine not only chemical processes in the environment, but also the biological impact of chemical substances. In this way, new criteria for assessing the environmental and biological relevance of materials can be made available. This is complemented by the development of methods of rapid analysis and sensor systems for analytical questions of a smaller scope.

• Department of Analytical Chemistry
• Department of Physical Chemistry
• Department of Inorganic Chemistry