Periodic Reporting for period 3 - C-CLEAR (Complement: to clear or not to clear)
Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2022-12-31
Progress was hampered by the COVID outbreak, causing temporarily a complete shut-down (9 weeks) of all experimental activities not direly related to SARS-2 research. Data analysis was continued, computational projects were started and research with regard to membrane organization was focused on SARS-2. After the (complete) shut-down period research was restarted with restrictions. Overall, all three parts of the project are in progress, yielding new insights and further defining our research approach.
Massive cryo-EM data analysis addressed the inherent flexibility of complexes yielding insights into complement activation (part I); the emergence of the new concept of membrane organization needs further substantiation (part II); and, unexpected aspects of complement activation suggest further optimization of the experimental conditions for homogeneous complex formation (part III). For all parts experimental conditions are well poised for subsequent experiments, addressing hitherto unresolved aspects of complement activation.