Back to search

FUGE-Funksjonell genomforskn.i Norg

Norwegian Structural Biology Centre (NorStruct) Proposal for a continuation of the Centre for 2008-12

Awarded: NOK 23.0 mill.

NorStruct will continue to offer state of the art services and collaboration in structural biology techniques to the Norwegian research community. The expertise and services will have a solid foundation in in-house research and national and international partners. The services will be organized in three service packages (SPs), where the customer can individualize the order within each package. The three SPs will be Protein production (SP1), Structure determination (SP2), and Drug discovery and design (SP3 ). Thus, NorStruct will extend its current services to include protein production and drug design-related technologies, in accord with requests from customers and advice from the evaluation panel. NorStruct will continue to give a significant contribution to the development of structural biology in Norway by additionally offering specialized national courses, organizing international workshops, and through the visitor program for training and research. NorStruct will secure access to international leading expertise in crystallography and complementary techniques (NMR, Cryo-EM, SAXS, etc), through a closer interaction with ESRF and through closer association with the "Partnership for Structural Biology", Grenoble, that will additionally strengthen the lin k to synchrotron technology. Research projects are not covered by the present proposal, but in-house research activity of high international standard is nevertheless of crucial importance in order to provide state-of-the-art services. For in-house project s, four overall thematic areas are focused: DNA repair systems, Host-pathogen interactions, Signal transduction, and Molecular adaptation to extremes. Highly interconnected with the topics, significant focus will be towards "Marine bioactivities and drug discovery" through the participation in MabCent-CRI, and in developmental work in biomolecular modeling together with the CTCC (CoE). Additionally, new projects in membrane protein crystallography are initiated.

Funding scheme:

FUGE-Funksjonell genomforskn.i Norg