Descrizione del progetto
Credendo nelle sue potenzialità, il Portogallo istituisce un centro di microscopia crioelettronica per la scoperta di farmaci
La struttura è strettamente legata alla funzione e la comprensione della struttura 3D delle molecole biologiche è fondamentale per la scoperta dei farmaci. La microscopia crioelettronica fornisce informazioni strutturali su campioni surgelati (raffreddati criogenicamente) incorporati in ghiaccio non cristallino (vetroso). Esiste da decenni e, dopo anni di sviluppo, i progressi stanno alimentando una rivoluzione nella biologia strutturale. Il Portogallo era uno dei pochi paesi europei a non disporre di questa tecnologia; tuttavia, la prevista installazione del primo microscopio crioelettronico con caricatore automatico coordinato dal consorzio CryoEM-PT, di cui fa parte l’Università NOVA di Lisbona, sta cambiando la situazione. Il progetto CryoEMatNOVA, finanziato dall’UE, creerà un polo crio-EM sostenibile per la ricerca e la formazione presso NOVA.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- 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
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-CSA - HORIZON Coordination and Support ActionsCoordinatore
1099 085 Lisboa
Portogallo