As of July 1st, 2025, Dr. Andrea Thorn is leading the newly established department “AI and Biomolecular Structures” at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). A biophysicist with deep expertise in AI-based tools for structural biology, she aims to combine experimental research with intelligent data processing.
Her team will build computational pipelines that integrate crystallography data from BESSY II with biological insights – enabling faster, more accurate, and more transparent molecular analysis. “We’re building something like a ChatGPT for molecules,” Thorn explains – a neural network that links and interprets structural data from diverse sources.
Thorn is best known for founding the “Coronavirus Structural Task Force” during the pandemic. This international group verified viral structures worldwide and created the most accurate 3D model of SARS-CoV-2 to date. Now, she aims to generalize this success to other diseases like influenza, using automation to speed up drug design and scientific discovery.
The new department is part of the Photon Science division at HZB and extends the capabilities of macromolecular crystallography with explainable AI. In addition to viruses and crystallography, Thorn’s team also works on cryo-EM, fungal biology, and structural analysis in accident research.
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