Infrastructure for transnational access and discovery in structural biology

ended

Structural biology reveals the molecular architecture of life; the three-dimensional structure of biomolecules and how they interact to form complex machineries and cells. Structural biology is key to innovations in chemistry, biotechnology and medicine: new drugs, advanced vaccines, novel biomaterials, engineered enzymes for food production, a cleaner environment, and efficient biofuels. iNEXT-Discovery takes on the challenge of proactively supporting the uptake of existing tools, and the innovation of new tools, to promote scientific Discovery and translation in a range of disciplines, building on the success of the H2020 project iNEXT (infrastructure for NMR, EM and X-rays for Translational research). iNEXT-Discovery brings together a strong network of leading structural biology facilities in partnership with regional experts and ESFRI communities in medicinal chemistry, translational medicine, biological imaging, and food research, to disseminate knowledge and services. We aim to stimulate the wider uptake of structural biology across Europe, across scientific disciplines and research sectors. Significant hardware and software advances allow targeting transnational access to advanced instrumentation also to scientists without previous expertise in structural biology: uptake will be facilitated by training and thematic calls focused on new communities. Access to our instrumentation and expertise will ultimately allow European scientists to gain structural insight that can translate into innovations in the biomedical, food, biotechnological and biomaterials sectors. Our joint research activities will roll-out advances in key technologies for translational research: fragment screening for drug development, EM efficiency and capacity, NMR applications to extend structures beyond three dimensions, and integrative structural biology approaches to look at macromolecules in cells. All our activities support innovative research of both academic and industrial users.