Partnership for Structural Biology
Structural biology is increasingly dependent on integrated high-throughput technologies to facilitate the elucidation of high-resolution protein structures.
To leverage complementary expertise and to pursue joint projects, the Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB) was formally established in November 2002 by the following institutes: EMBL Grenoble, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL), and the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS).
The development of new infrastructures for structure determination will encompass construction of a new high-throughput dual station beamline at the ESRF (ID23), new high-throughput protein expression and crystallisation facilities, facilities for the characterisation of protein samples and a deuteration and isotope labelling laboratory for neutron scattering and NMR spectroscopy.
A new building that has been constructed on the joint ESRF/ILL site adjacent to the building of EMBL Grenoble houses most of the important technologies essential for the scientific advancement of structural biology.
Common PSB projects in structural biology include SPINE, a range of human health targets, research in deuteration and isotope labelling, and structural genomics of deinococcus radiodurans.
The PSB actively encourages academic visitors to make use of the new infrastructures, particularly for training purposes on the beamlines, in the protein production, characterisation and crystallisation facilities as well as in the Deuterium labelling facility.
