Research lines
The research group led by Dr Felix Ritort investigates the energy of biological processes on the molecular level in the broadest possible sense, from the fundamental understanding of irreversible processes on a microscopic scale through to more advanced applications that allow them to characterise molecular interactions in great detail, measuring energy with a resolution in the tenths of kilocalories per mole (kcal/mol) and statistical information processes down to the tenth of a bit.
All this is done with a multidisciplinary approach, combining single-molecule experiments and phenomenological theories in biophysics and fundamental principles of statistical physics applied to non-equilibrium physicochemical systems. The overarching perspective of our research has many applications beyond biophysics, ranging from the thermodynamics and kinetics of small nucleic-acid binding drugs to the aggregation process in macromolecular complexes or the study of the antigen-antibody interactions in the humoral system.