Description du projet
Le Portugal renforce son potentiel en créant un centre de cryomicroscopie électronique destiné à la recherche de médicaments
La structure est intimement liée à la fonction. C’est pourquoi la compréhension de la structure 3D des molécules biologiques est essentielle à la découverte de médicaments. La cryomicroscopie électronique fournit des informations structurelles sur des échantillons congelés très rapidement (par cryogénie) et figés dans une glace non cristalline (vitreuse). Elle est utilisée depuis plusieurs décennies et, après des années de développement, les progrès réalisés par cette méthode provoquent actuellement une révolution dans le domaine de la biologie structurelle. Le Portugal restait l’un des rares pays européens à ne pas encore disposer de cette technologie, mais l’installation prévue du premier cryomicroscope électronique à chargeur automatique, coordonnée par le consortium CryoEM-PT, dont l’Université nouvelle de Lisbonne (NOVA) est membre, change la donne. Le projet CryoEMatNOVA, financé par l’UE, établira un centre de cryo-EM durable pour la recherche et la formation au sein de l’Université nouvelle de Lisbonne.
Objectif
Structural biology is essential for atomic-level understanding of structure-function relationships in living systems and increasingly key to providing knowledge structure-based drug discovery. While traditionally the method of choice has been x-ray crystallography, in the past seven years, dramatic improvements of resolution using cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM) have resulted in cryo-EM named 2015 Nature Method of the Year and the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This in turn has had a major impact on the number of cryo-EM installations in Europe, publicly deposited structures, publications and related knowledge, teaching and dissemination.
Portugal is one of the few European countries without this technology. That is now changing with the inclusion of cryo-EM in the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures 2020, resulting in major funding (€2.5M) for the first autoloader cryo electron microscope to be installed in Portugal in 2022, coordinated by the CryoEM-PT consortium in whichNOVA is a node. This presents an excellent opportunity for establishing cryo-EM research and training in Portugal, and specifically at NOVA, which has expertise using x-ray crystallography and NMR, while expertise in cryo-EM is lacking, resulting in unmet needs.
The overall objective of CryoEM@NOVA is to establish a sustainable cryo-EM hub for research and training at NOVA. Under the direction of the ERA Chair holder this objective is clearly achievable as Prof. Luecke has experience in setting up cryo-EM infrastructure leading to high-resolution structures of proteins with medically-relevant bound inhibitors, generating high-impact publications and attracting funding and collaborations.
The operation of advanced electron microscopes and associated vitrification robots coupled with storage- & compute-intensive data analysis requires scientists with in-depth knowledge & training. Such talent will have acquired this expertise elsewhere and will need to be recruited to Portugal.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata science
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesgeologymineralogycrystallography
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopyelectron microscopy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmolecular biologystructural biology
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HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinateur
1099 085 Lisboa
Portugal