Toshio Ando
Kanazawa University
Japan
Overview
Funded by EMBO for excellence in the life sciences
Application is not yet open for this event. If you are interested in receiving more information please register your interest.
This course will take place at EMBL Grenoble.
Course overview
Recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy/tomography (cryo-EM/ET), super-resolution microscopy, and deep-learning-based protein structure prediction, combined with increasingly sophisticated sample preparation methods, have transformed structural biology. Solving the field’s most complex challenges will require researchers who can strategically integrate these powerful tools.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of modern structural biology methods, with emphasis on sample preparation, characterisation, and data integration.
Key topics include:
- multi-subunit protein expression in bacterial, insect, and mammalian systems
- isolation of native complexes
- invitro reconstitution of protein and protein–nucleic acid assemblies
- biochemical and biophysical approaches to assess stoichiometry and homogeneity
This latest edition of this long-standing course features a refreshed lineup of speakers and topics, highlighting the strategic use of cutting-edge protein structure prediction methods, and recent advances in in situ structural biology. The program aims to equip participants with the theoretical and practical skills needed to combine complementary approaches and apply them to contemporary structural biology research.
Learning outcomes
Participants will learn 3D structure determination of macromolecular assemblies at various resolution scales, and strategies to integrate data from X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, SAXS, NMR, mass spectrometry, smFRET, and super-resolution microscopy.
What past participants say about the course
“The course on Structural Characterisation of Macromolecular Complexes was very engaging, with lecturers eager to learn about our projects and providing valuable insights. I also especially appreciated the opportunity to meet fellow students from all over the world.” —Sophie Roth, Harvard University, USA
“It was a wonderfully intense experience. I learned more, than I thought was possible in a single week.” — Marta Gapinska, University of Warsaw, Poland
This event has been granted the following EMBO sustainability badge:
Speakers and trainers
Speakers and trainers
Ana Berna
ALBA
Spain
Sagar Bhogaraju
EMBL Grenoble
France
Matthew Bowler
EMBL Grenoble
France
Ana Casanal
Human Technopole
Italu
Francesca Coscia
Human Technopole
Italy
Kristina Djinovic-Carugo
EMBL Grenoble
France
Oliver Duss
EMBL Heidelberg
Germany
Trevor Forsyth
LINXS
Sweden
Melissa Graewert
EMBL Hamburg
Germany
Jan Kosinski
EMBL Hamburg
Germany
Eva Kowalinski
EMBL Grenoble
France
Cameron Mackereth
University of Bordeaux
France
Arwen Pearson
University of Hamburg
Germany
Martin Pellose
EMBL Hamburg
Germany
Carlos Petosa
Institut de Biologie Structurale
France
Gaia Pigino
Human Technopole
Italy
Randy Read
University of Cambridge
UK
Jonas Ries
University of Vienna
Austria
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
Germany
Christoph Romier
Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire
France
John Rubenstein
University of Toronto
Canada
Andrea Sinz
Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg
Germany
Montserrat Soler Lopez
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
France
Jörg Standfuss
Paul Scherrer Institut
Switzerland
Song Tan
The Pennsylvania State University
USA
Maya Topf
CSSB Hamburg
Germany
Oscar Vadas
University of Geneva
Switzerland
Florian Wollweber
EMBL Grenoble
France
Chloe Zubieta
CEA
France
Scientific organisers
Matthew Bowler
EMBL Grenoble
France
Sagar Bhogaraju
EMBL Grenoble
France
Ana Casanal
Human Technopole
Italy
Carlo Petosa
Institut de Biologie Structurale
France
Montserrat Soler Lopez
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
France
Course organiser
Nathalie Sneider
EMBL Heidelberg
Germany
Preliminary programme
Are you on social media? Post using #EMBOMacromolecular and don’t forget to tag @EMBLEvents.
- Some pre-course work (such as watching pre-recordings and protocol reading) with estimated time 0-10 hours will be required and will be shared in advance of the course
- Some speakers may need to join virtually to give their lecture or Q&A, and the programme is subject to change
- For registered participants, recorded talks will be accessible on demand for 4 weeks after the end of the event, unless indicated otherwise
Day 0: Onboarding
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.
Day 1: Wednesday 27 May 2026
| 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 |
Day 2: Thursday 28 May 2026
| 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 |
Day 3: Friday 29 May 2026
| 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 |
Day 4: Saturday 30 May 2026
| 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 |
Day 5: Sunday 31 May 2026
| 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 |
Day 6: Monday 1 June 2026
| 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 |
Day 7: Tuesday 2 June 2026
| 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 |
Day 8: Wednesday 3 June 2026
| 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 |
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Date: 27 May - 3 Jun 2026
Location: EMBL Grenoble
Venue: EPN Campus, Grenoble
Organisers:
-
Matthew Bowler
EMBL Grenoble, France -
Ana Casañal
Human Technopole, Italy -
Sagar Bhogaraju
EMBL Grenoble, France -
Carlo Petosa
Institut de Biologie Structurale, France -
Montserrat Soler López
The European Synchroton
Contact: Nathalie Sneider