MRC commits to international collaboration to unravel complex cell structures
2 November 2010
The Medical Research Council has made a two-year commitment to the European initiative in integrated structural biology, INSTRUCT, on behalf of the UK research community. The initiative works to answer fundamental questions about the biological structure of basic components of life such as proteins and bacteria by giving researchers greater access to the best structural biology technologies and expertise available in Europe.
The MRC is working with the University of Oxford and European counterparts to develop INSTRUCT as an international infrastructure, comprising a number of research centres across Europe. By making the most of the partners’ major facilities, INSTRUCT also aims to help researchers address the major global challenges faced by molecular and cellular structural biology researchers today.
Equipment at the cutting-edge of structural biology can be prohibitively expensive, and no single European country possesses a complete set of equipment and expertise in all structural biology technologies. INSTRUCT will enable its members to access this equipment and expertise through a sustainable network of complementary centres across Europe, and develop future technologies at the interface of structural and cell biology through Research and Development and training programmes.
Deciphering the biological structure of proteins, macromolecular structures, bacteria and viruses can help identify the role that it plays in health and disease, and provide new pointers for the development of drugs and vaccines.
Professor David Stuart, MRC Professor of Structural Biology at the University of Oxford, who is the INSTRUCT coordinator said:
“I am absolutely delighted that the MRC has demonstrated the UK’s commitment to INSTRUCT. This will pave the way for other European member states to join so they can take advantage of this important new research infrastructure. INSTRUCT will drive the development of innovative approaches for the integration of structural information across technologies and across size ranges from molecule to cell. This will lead to a better understanding of the relationship between structure and function, and allow us to tackle challenging questions.”
European structural biology equipment manufacturers are amongst the foremost in the world. INSTRUCT will work with industry to stimulate the development and testing of innovative technologies leading to the next generation of equipment.
INSTRUCT was identified as a priority by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) in their 2006 Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. The preparatory phase to develop INSTRUCT was funded by the European Union under the Framework 7 programme. During the preparatory phase, a number of countries and research organisations have worked together to develop INSTRUCT. These include the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Israel, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, and EMBL (the European Molecular Biology Laboratory).
