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| Grenoble, 10 January 2006 |
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| A major European Centre for Structural
Biology inaugurated in Grenoble
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![The Carl-Ivar Bränden Building [CIBB] is located on the Polygone Scientifique Campus in Grenoble, France, and was completed in August 2005.](../../../../../images/press/press06/press10jan06pics.jpg) |
| The
Carl-Ivar Brändén Building [CIBB]
is located on the Polygone Scientifique Campus
in Grenoble, France, and was completed in
August 2005. |
|
Press
Release 10 January 2006 [PDF]
On Friday, 13 January 2006, the new Carl-Ivar Brändén
Building [CIBB] will be inaugurated on the Polygone
Scientifique Campus in Grenoble, France. The CIBB
will be operated as a collaboration between major
international and national partners based in Grenoble
and is a further step in the development of the
region as a European centre of excellence for structural
biology.
The CIBB comprises two complementary units: the
Partnership for Structural Biology [PSB], whose
members include the European Molecular Biology Laboratory
[EMBL], the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
[ESRF], the Institut de Biologie Structurale [IBS]
and the Institut Laue-Langevin [ILL], and the Institut de Virologie Moléculaire et Structurale [IVMS, associated
with the Université Joseph Fourier and the CNRS].
"These partners offer an amazing range of expertise in the
life sciences, and the Grenoble campus is an ideal place
to cluster them together in an important new centre for
structural biology", says Eva Pebay-Peyroula, Director of
the IBS and current Chair of the PSB. "It benefits from the
presence of some of the world's most important instruments
for structural biology: the ESRF's synchrotron X-ray
source is one of the most powerful in the world, and the ILL
is the world's leading source of neutrons for research."
For many years the ESRF, ILL and EMBL have collaborated
in offering scientists services and training connected to
these instruments, already making the site a pivotal contact
point for large European research projects and interdisciplinary
collaborations.
The CIBB will house research groups and a complete
pipeline for carrying out high-throughput structural investigations
of proteins and other molecules, with a particular
focus on molecules related to human diseases. The CIBB
laboratories contain robotics for high-throughput protein
purification, expression and crystallisation, facilities for isotope
labelling, especially deuteration, and instrumentation
for nuclear magnetic resonance, mass-spectrometry and
cryo-electron microscopy.
"By assembling all the components of this pipeline in a
unique platform under one roof, we can greatly speed up
the process of investigating molecules and processes relevant
to diseases," says Rob Ruigrok, Professor at the
Université Joseph Fourier and Director of the IVMS.
One example of work to be carried out at the CIBB will be
understanding the molecular and cellular basis of viral diseases.
Researchers plan to investigate, for example, proteins
on the surfaces of viruses that allow them to dock
onto receptor proteins, and thus gain entry into human
cells. Once inside, the viral proteins interact with cellular
proteins to hijack crucial cellular processes and eventually
destroys the host. Viruses actively being studied include
influenza virus, adenovirus, Epstein-Barr virus and rabies
virus.
Investigating the key steps in these processes should
allow the identification of specific molecules and pathways
that may be targets for antiviral drugs. Designing efficient
inhibitors will require three-dimensional structures atomby-
atom maps of proteins and other molecules such as
RNA. The necessary level of resolution cannot be obtained
with microscopes, so scientists turn to high-intensity X-ray
beams, like those produced by the ESRF, and neutrons
from the ILL. The many types of skills and expertise necessary
for such analyses of molecular structures have now
been brought together in the CIBB.
This strategy of combining complementary expertise has
proved itself in past collaborative projects between the
institutes. For example, since the PSB was founded in
2002, scientists have obtained crucial insights into fundamental
biological processes that play a role in disease,
and as part of the EU SPINE [Structural Proteomics in
Europe] project, the PSB has produced potential drug targets
in the battle against disease-causing bacteria and
viruses.
"The CIBB is a concrete manifestation of the interdisciplinary
and international scientific collaboration necessary
to push forward fundamental disease research in
this new era of high-throughput biology" says Stephen
Cusack, Head of EMBL's Outstation in Grenoble. "We
are particularly pleased that it has received financial
support and recognition through the European Union's
6th Framework Programme".
Press Contact
Françoise Vauquois,
ILL Press Officer, Grenoble, France
Tel: +33 476 207107
E-mail: vauquois@ill.fr |
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