zur Erlangung des Grades

Abstract

First and foremost, I would like to dedicate my thanks to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Volkhard Helms for offering me the opportunity to work in his group. During the last years, he supported me with fruitful discussions, valuable suggestions, and his encouragement. Especially, I am thankful for offering me the opportunity to attend many interesting conferences and workshops. In this context, I would also like to thank the Center for Bioinformatics, Saar for the initial funding. I want to thank my co-workers, especially Tihamér Geyer for his technical support and assistance and the “Coffee Club ” for very enjoyable scientific, as well as non-scientific discussions. Furthermore, I thank Jan Fuhrmann and Dirk Neumann who kindly provided their BALLPass implementation to us and Anja Berwanger and Prof. Dr. Rita Bernhardt for giving me interesting insights into the “in vitro ” world of Biochemistry. Last, but now least I want to specially thank my friends Benjamin Eckert, Lars Steinbrück, Dorothea Emig, Peter Walter, and Andreas Schlicker for revising my thesis and my family for always believing in me. Protein-protein interactions play a pivotal role in most biological processes. Especially their functio