Instruct hub for structural biology

The joint campus of ESRF, ILL and EMBL Grenoble is already famous for its productivity in the domain of solving protein structures: Protein Data Bank (PDB) deposited structures from data collection at ESRF beamlines reached 8294 in May 2012, accounting for 46% of the European output since 1995. The recently launched Instruct hub for structural biology will make production and analysis of proteins even easier for researchers from all over Europe. For those doing experiments in Grenoble, it will provide a new means of access to the advanced facilities for protein production, characterisation and crystallisation that are housed on the EPN Science Campus.

Instruct is an ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) roadmap project which received funding from the European Union for its preparatory phase. Instruct is now entering its operational phase. It will make cutting-edge technology available to scientists who gain access to this unique equipment and facilities through a peer review process: projects are submitted to Instruct, then, following selection, access is granted to structural biology platforms located at one or more of the fifteen Instruct centres. Instruct currently has seven countries as member states and several more are expected to join soon.

“The goal is to promote multi-resolution structural biology by increasing access to the best technologies around Europe through a single application portal. Fifteen centres in eight countries have agreed to open a range of facilities, often unique and expensive, including synchrotron X-ray beamlines, high-field and solid-state NMR, advanced cryo-electron microscopy and tomography, specialised protein production, and native mass-spectroscopy”, says Stephan Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble.

Instruct was launched at an official signing ceremony in Brussels on 23 February 2012 attended by Robert-Jan Smits, European Commission Director General for Research and Innovation, Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble, and David Stuart, Director of Instruct. 

Stephen Cusack (centre), Head of EMBL Grenoble, signs the accession agreement with the European Commission Director General for Research and Innovation, Robert-Jan Smits (left) and Instruct Director David Stuart (right) from Oxford University (Credit: Miguel Amortegui).

One of the fifteen instruct centres, the Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB), is located on the EPN Science Campus in Grenoble. The PSB is a partnership including ESRF, ILL, EMBL Grenoble, IBS and UVHCI. Two of the platforms available through Instruct are ESPRIT: Library-based construct screening for soluble expression and The High Throughput Crystallisation Laboratory at EMBL Grenoble. Facilities at the ESRF, such as data collection from protein crystals and small-angle scattering are complementary to the local protein synthesis and crystallisation techniques accessible via Instruct.

Eva Pebay-Peyroula, scientist and head of the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS) is enthusiastic about Instruct, “Integrated structural biology needs many different approaches, sometimes very sophisticated approaches. Instrumentation needs to be developed in cooperation with others because it is expensive to buy and run. But its not only a question of money, its also a question of expertise. This sort of partnership is crucial for structural biology”.

Further information about Instruct, or to apply for access, is via the Instruct web site: www.structuralbiology.eu.

Top image: High throughput crystallisation laboratory, EMBL Grenoble (Credit: EMBL).