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| Heidelberg,
Thursday, 8 August 2002 |
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| EMBL's Hamburg Outstation inaugurates new facilities |
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[Deutsch]
European Molecular Biology Laboratory's Hamburg Outstation is currently
updating and extending its facilities and will be inaugurating its building
extension on the premises of the DESY on 20 August 2002 at 2:00 p.m.
The EMBL is an international institute with its main laboratory in
Heidelberg, outstations in Hamburg, Grenoble [France] and Hinxton [Great
Britain], and a research programme in Monterotondo/Rome [Italy]. The Hamburg
Outstation was established in 1974 and since then has played a substantial
role in providing synchrotron radiation facilities for structural biology
researchers worldwide. Synchrotron radiation has allowed the structures
of large biological molecules [proteins, RNA] to be solved at a very high
resolution so that even single atoms are visible. Without the knowledge
of these structures, modern biology would not be the same today. Thus it
is not surprising that several Nobel prizes have been awarded in this field
over the past decades.
The Hamburg Outstation currently houses eight research teams who work
on the development of new automated methods in structural biology and genomics.
The research teams also collaborate on biological projects with other
EMBL units, as well as with external research institutions. Seven synchrotron
radiation beamlines are currently available for research projects. These
facilities are used by approximately 300 researchers each year from almost
every European country. The Hamburg Outstation has recently become one of
the main participating partners in a pilot project in structural genomics
called "SPINE", that will be funded by the European Union with approximately
14 million EURO as of autumn this year.
The EMBL Hamburg Outstation plans to provide researchers with an infrastructure
for high-throughput methods for x-ray crystallography using funds provided
by the Federal Ministry for Research and Education. These facilities will
supplement the existing synchrotron radiation beamlines. The EMBL is also
interested in building new experimental end stations at the next largest
storage ring of DESY [PETRA] for novel applications in structural biology.
This storage ring is to be made available for synchrotron radiation as
of 2007.
In order to fulfil these tasks the current building on the premises
of the DESY is being upgraded and extended. The inauguration of the new
facilities will take place on 20 August.
Website: www.embl-hamburg.de |
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