Structural characterisation of macromolecular complexes

Date: to be confirmed but around 1 week before the start of the course.

During this virtual onboarding session the participants will participate in a short icebreaker activity, receive access to EMBL eCampus and course material.

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
12:00 – 12:30	Arrival and registration	IIL / EMBL Hall
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch and speed networking	IIL / EMBL Hall
13:30 – 14:00	Welcome, house notes and course overview with safety briefing	EMBL Seminar Room
14:00 – 15:30	Flashtalks	EMBL Seminar Room
15:30 – 16:00	Coffee Break	IIL / EMBL Hall
16:00 – 17:30	Flashtalks	EMBL Seminar Room
17:30 – 18:00	Coffee Break	IIL / EMBL Hall
18:00 – 19:00	Lecture 1: Structural studies of nucleosome binding complexes Song Tan – The Pennsylvania State University, USA	EMBL Seminar Room
19:00 – 20:00	Dinner	Bouillon A

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Matthew Bowler: EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 2: Introduction to protein expression in E. coli Christophe Romier – Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 3: Eukaryotic expression systems Martin Pellosse – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 4: Mass spectrometry in structural biology Andrea Sinz – Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:30	Lecture 5: Structural characterisation of protein RNA complexes Eva Kowalinski – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
12:30 – 14:00	Lunch break	IIL / EMBL Hall
14:00 – 14:15	Overview of the practicals	EMBL Seminar Room
14:15 – 16:15	Parallel practical session 1 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical A: EM intro (Electron Microscopy) Practical B: cryoET – FIB-SEM (Electron Microscopy) Practical C: cryoEM and cryoET – collection (Electron Microscopy)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
16:15 – 16:45	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
16:45 – 18:45	Parallel practical session 2 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical A: EM intro (Electron Microscopy) Practical B: cryoET – FIB-SEM (Electron Microscopy) Practical C: cryoEM and cryoET – collection (Electron Microscopy) Practical E: NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
18:45 – 20:45	Group dinner at Restaurant Epicurien	Restaurant Epicurien

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Carlo Petosa – Institut de Biologie Structurale, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 6: Introduction to super-resolution microscopy Jonas Ries – Max Perutz Laboratory, Vienna	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 7: Single molecule interactions and dynamics in transcription/translation Oliver Duss – EMBL Heidelberg, Germany	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Introduction to small angle x-ray scattering Melissa Graewert – EMBL Hamburg, Germany	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 13:15	Poster Session 1	IIL / EMBL Hall
13:15 – 14:15	Lunch with networking (career guidance)	IIL / EMBL Hall
14:15 – 14:30	Overview of the practicals	EMBL Seminar Room
14:30 – 16:30	Parallel practical session 3 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical I: Biophysics (BP) Practical J: AlphaFold2 (AF) Practical D: cryoEM and cryoET – analysis (Electron Microscopy) Practical E: NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
16:30 – 17:00	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
17:00 – 19:00	Parallel practical session 4 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical B: cryoET – FIB-SEM (Electron Microscopy) Practical C: cryoEM/ET data collection (Electron Microscopy) Practical I: Biophysics (BP) Practical J: AlphaFold2 (AF)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
19:00 – 20:00	Dinner	Canteen

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Montserrat Soler Lopez – European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 9: Introduction to modern macromolecular crystallography Matthew Bowler – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 10: Serial X-ray crystallography Jörg Standfuss – Paul Scherrer Institut, USA	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 11: Time resolved studies Arwen Pearson – CFEL Hamburg	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:30	Lecture 12: Neutrons in structural biology Trevor Forsyth – LINXS Lund, Sweden	EMBL Seminar Room
12:30 – 13:15	Lunch	Canteen
13:15 – 13:30	Overview of the practicals	EMBL Seminar Room
13:30 – 15:30	Parallel practical session 5 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical J: AlphaFold2 (AF) Practical E: NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Practical H: Mass Spectrometry (MS) Practical G: Serial-prep and Serial-MX (Serial crystallography)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
15:30 – 16:00	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
16:00 – 18:00	Parallel practical session 6 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical C: cryoEM/ET – collection (Electron Microscopy) Practical D: cryoEM and cryoET – analysis (Electron Microscopy) Practical H: Mass Spectrometry (MS) Practical J: AlphaFold2 (AF)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
18:00 – 19:00	Dinner	Canteen

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Ana Casanal – HT, Milan, Italy	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 13: Introduction to cryo-EM Frencesca Coscia, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 14: Cryo-electron tomography Florian Wollweber – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 15: Nuclear Pore Complex Jan Kosinski – EMBL Hamburg, Germany	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:45	Lunch	Canteen
12:45 – 14:15	Poster session 2	IIL / EMBL Hall
14:15 – 19:00	Excursion: Group visit to Vizille Castle	EMBL Seminar Room
19:00 – 21:00	Dinner	Restaurant Epicurien

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Sagar Bhogaraju – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 16: Atomic Force Microscopy Toshio Ando – University of Japan	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 17: Introduction to NMR spectroscopy Cameron Mackereth – University of Bordeaux, France	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 18: Biophysical characterisation of protein complexes Kristina Djinovic-Carugo – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:30	Lecture 19: HDX mass spec of protein complexes Oscar Vadas – University of Geneva, CH	EMBL Seminar Room
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch	Canteen
13:30 – 13:45	Overview of the practicals	EMBL Seminar Room
13:45 – 15:45	Parallel practical session 7 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical F: SAXS (Small Angle X-ray Scattering) Practical G: Serial-prep and Serial-MX (Serial crystallography) Practical E: NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Practical A: EM intro (Electron Microscopy)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
15:45 – 16:15	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
16:15 – 18:15	Parallel practical session 8 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical G: Serial-prep and Serial-MX (Serial crystallography) Practical H: Mass Spectrometry (MS) Practical A: EM intro (Electron Microscopy) Practical F: SAXS (Small Angle X-ray Scattering)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
18:15	Dinner	La Chappelle restaurant

Time (Europe/Grenoble)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Matthew Bowler – EMBL Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 20: MD and cryoEM Maya Topf – CSSB Hamburg, Germany	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 21: Opportunities and challenges of AI methods in structural biology Randy Read – University of Cambridge, UK	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 22: Time resolved cryoEM of ATP synthase John Rubenstein – Hospital for Sick Kids, Canada	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:30	Panel discussion on responsible conduct of research	EMBL Seminar Room
12:30 – 13:15	Lunch	Canteen
13:15 – 13:30	Overview of the practicals	EMBL Seminar Room
13:30 – 15:30	Parallel practical session 9 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical B: cryoEM and cryoET – analysis (Electron Microscopy) Practical F: SAXS (Small Angle X-ray Scattering) Practical H: Mass Spectrometry (MS) Practical I: Biophysics (BP)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
15:30 – 16:00	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
16:00 – 18:00	Parallel practical session 10 Participants divided into 4 groups of 5 attend one of the practical sessions Practical D: cryoEM and cryoET – analysis (Electron Microscopy) Practical F: SAXS (Small Angle X-ray Scattering) Practical G: Serial-prep and Serial-MX (Serial crystallography) Practical I: Biophysics (BP)	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
18:00 – 18:30	Coffee break	IIL / EMBL Hall
18:30 – 19:15	Lecture 23: Structural data visualisation Margot Riggi – Max Planck, Munich, Germany	Meeting point: IIL / EMBL Hall
19:15 – 21:00	Course dinner	Corne d’or Restaurant

Time (Europe/Berlin)	Session	Location
08:45 – 09:00	Overview of the day Carlo Petosa – Institut de Biologie Structurale, France	EMBL Seminar Room
09:00 – 09:45	Lecture 24: X-ray imaging in structural biology Ana Berna – ALBA, Barcelona, Spain	EMBL Seminar Room
09:45 – 10:30	Lecture 25: Phase separation Chloe Zubieta – CEA, Grenoble, France	EMBL Seminar Room
10:30 – 11:00	Coffee break and Meet the speakers	IIL / EMBL Hall
11:00 – 11:45	Lecture 26: Structural studies of cillia Gaia Pigino, Human Technopole, Milan, Italy	EMBL Seminar Room
11:45 – 12:30	Course evaluation	EMBL Seminar Room
12:30 – 13:30	Lunch	Canteen

The course is limited to 20 participants. For selection purposes, please note that your application will not be considered without a letter of motivation.

Registration fees

Your registration for the event includes:

• Admission to the event
• Meals and coffee breaks
• Course materials
• Access to the e-learning platform
• A letter to support your visa application (for more information, check the ‘Travel and accommodation’ tab)

For this EMBO course, include accommodation, all meals throughout the duration of the course, admission and course materials. Travel expenses are NOT covered with the registration fee.

Academia	€500
PhD Student	€500
Industry	€1100

Confirmation and payment

The registration fee should be paid only after acceptance to the course. The results will be announced approximately 2-3 weeks after the application deadline.

Cancellation policy

If you are no longer able to take part in the course, please inform your course contact responsible for this event. Your registration and the submitted motivation letter will be deleted.

Please also check our Terms and Conditions for the cancellation policy.

Motivation letter submission

After you have logged in and successfully registered, you will receive an email asking you to submit your motivation letter. Click on the link provided and enter your motivation letter in the text box provided. Alternatively you can submit your motivation letter by clicking on the link on the confirmation page directly after registering.

Instructions

1. Include your relevant skills, experience and qualifications showing why you would be suitable for the course.
2. Explain why you would like to attend, including what you can contribute and how you think you will benefit from the course.

Please note:

• The limit of 2,000 characters refers to manually typed text and excludes spaces. If an error occurs try using a different web browser (preferably Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox).
• If you copy-paste the text into the form, hidden formatting might still be included which may cause the text to exceed the 2,000 character limit resulting in an error message. We recommend you clear all formatting before pasting in the text.
• If you have special symbols in your text, make sure you are using Unicode characters, otherwise these will not be recognised.

For detailed instructions, please watch our video on how to submit a course motivation letter.

Further details

For further information about registration and motivation letter submission please refer to the FAQ page.

Financial assistance

Limited financial assistance is provided by the EMBL Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme and EMBO in the form of  travel grants and childcare grants. 

Your place in the meeting is only confirmed by paying the registration fee, which is mandatory even when receiving a fee waiver.

Travel grant

The travel grant will cover the cost of travel (airfare, train, bus, taxi, and visa) and/or registration fees and is provided up to specified caps which are normally as follows:

– up to €500 for any participant travelling to an EMBO Practical Course.

– up to €1000 for any participant working in Chile, India, Singapore or Taiwan travelling to an EMBO Practical Course.

The organisers may reduce the grant cap to accommodate more participants. Recipients will be notified of their travel cap amount when they are informed of the outcome of their application. Original receipts must be provided with your signature for all costs incurred within two months of completion of travel. Scanned copies cannot be accepted.

Childcare grants

There is the possibility to apply for a childcare grant to offset child care costs incurred by participants, speakers, trainers and organisers when attending a course. Eligible costs include (but are not limited to) fees for a babysitter or child-care facility and travel costs for a caregiver. Please note that priority will be given to early-stage researchers. There is a limited amount of funding available for the childcare grants and funds will be distributed amongst eligible applicants.

Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds travel grant

Applies to selected courses only. Availability will be indicated during the abstract or motivation letter submission process.

This grant covers costs related to your attendance to the course (registration, travel and accommodation costs). The grant is restricted to PhD students and postdocs who conduct basic biomedical research.
Whether you are eligible to apply for a travel grant, depends on when you received your university entrance qualification (e.g. Abitur, A-Levels, High School Diploma, Final State Examination):

– for PhD and MD students, as well as graduates, the university entrance qualification must not have been obtained more than 11 years ago at the time of the envisaged course
– for postdocs, the university entrance qualification must not have been obtained more than 13 years ago at the time of the envisaged course

EMBO Accessibility Grant

For EMBO Practical Course participants with accessibility needs, there is the possibility to apply for an accessibility grant to offset costs incurred by participants or speakers when participating at a course. Eligible costs include costs incurred for equipment or adaptations to the course environment, or travel costs for an event companion to assist the participant or speaker during the course where necessary, etc. While we do our best to accommodate needs, please note that extensive changes to the conference environment might not be possible.

Please note that priority will be given to early-stage researchers. A maximum amount of €500 can be awarded per participant applying for an EMBO accessibility grant. In order to apply for this grant for EMBO Courses, you must be registered by the application deadline. 

Application

If you are attending virtually, you can apply for financial assistance in the submission portal by the abstract deadline. Read the instructions on how to apply for financial assistance. Only submissions for financial assistance will be accepted. Presentation abstracts cannot be submitted here and will be declined. 

In your application you will be asked to summarise your current work,  answer questions regarding why your lab cannot fund your attendance, and how your attendance will make a difference to your career. Application for financial support will not affect the outcome of your registration application.

*For some events, applications for Childcare Grants will still be done by email. Information about the grant will be sent out shortly after the abstract/motivation letter deadline. Please contact the event Conference Officer if you have any questions.

Selection

A selection process will take place with the results announced by email to all applicants / submitters. We aim to announce 3 weeks (21 days) after the abstract submission deadline but delays may occur.”

Selection results do not impact your admission to the meeting. Selection for registration fee waivers and travel grants is based on scientific merit, your current work or study location, the reasons for needing financial support, and the impact this event will have on your career.

Childcare grants will be allocated in the same timeframe (6-8 weeks before the event start date). Please note that priority will be given to early-stage researchers.

Further details

Check out this list of external funding opportunities. 

For further information about financial assistance please refer to the FAQ page.

Accommodation

Reservations have been made for course participants at accommodation near the EMBL Grenoble site. More details will be shared with selected participants. Note, accommodation is included in the registration fee. 

Further details

Address: EMBL Grenoble, 71 Av. des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France

From Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport take the airport shuttle bus Lyon-Saint Exupéry–Grenoble counter (Satobus) inside the airport or in the bus. A single ticket costs 22€, a return ticket 33€.The stop “Place de la Résistance” is within easy walking distance of the EMBL site.

From Grenoble take Tram B towards “Resistance roundabout” and exit at “Grenoble Presquile”. The site entry is 350m away from the stop.

For further information on getting to EMBL Grenoble visit our Travel Information page.

Technical requirements

Information will be provided ahead of the course about installing any software required.

Event software

The EMBL eCampus learning platform will be used to collaborate, communicate and network with all of the course participants. All participants will receive information on how to join shortly before the course. We recommend using Chrome, Safari or Mozilla Firefox browsers for eCampus. 

Other information

While using the software during the course, please make sure you have nothing else using your bandwidth. We recommend using a wired connection.

Please find additional information including FAQs and terms and conditions on our Information for Participants page.