Johanna Kölbel

Many pharmaceuticals containing proteins are stored in a mostly dry form with residual water contents of less than 5 wt.%. The design of bioprotective glasses that allow long-term storage while keeping the proteins functional is a topic of high interest and research. In my PhD project, terahertz sensing is used with the aim of developing a fundamental understanding of the physical basis of protein degradation.

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy is sensitive to low-frequency vibrations (including intra- and intermolecular motions). Absorption in the terahertz range is a measure of mobility and different absorption regimes are observed upon variation of temperature. This allows the investigation of amorphous systems.