Aarhus University Seal

About CEMBID

The Center for Multifunctional Biomolecular Drug Design (CEMBID) is funded by the the Novo Nordisk Foundation and headed by Professor Kurt Gothelf.

These pages will provide an introduction to who we are and what we do. In brief, CEMBID are based at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center at Aarhus University. With our interdisciplinary backgrounds in chemistry, molecular biology, pharmacology, and medicine, we aim to develop new multifunctional biomolecular drugs, which will pave the way for new types of drugs that are more effective, have fewer side effects, and can be adapted to the individual patient.

Most drugs used today only have one mechanism of action, and it is both difficult and expensive to manufacture drugs with several function. In CEMBID, we aim to find new ways of conjugating drugs in order to achieve multiple mechanisms of action. 

Our goal is to develop a number of new methods to chemically bind medically relevant biological molecules. Nucleic acids such as DNA that contain all the information necessary to create and maintain life can be coded in the laboratory to conjugate themselves into very well-defined microscopic 2D or 3D structures. When these nucleic acid structures are attached to medically relevant proteins and small molecules, it is possible to link both existing and new drugs simply and efficiently to create multifunctional drugs. Among other things, these new drugs could be developed to be able to cross the body's barriers, influence the immune system in a specific direction, bind to the cells that require treatment, and then release the medicine to them.  

As such, our interdisciplinary team of researchers at CEMBID will be working within the areas of chemistry, molecular biology, pharmacology and medicine. In close collaboration, we aim to manufacture and test the new and complex molecules we develop. We hope to pave the way for new types of drugs that are more effective, have fewer side effects, and can be adapted to the 

Feel free to browse our website, and do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.