Svergun GroupCollaborative Projects
A worldwide e-Infrastructure for NMR and structural biology (WeNMR)
Start date: 1 November 2010
Duration: 36 months
Total funding: 2 300 000 Euro
Funding body: European Commission (the 7th Framework Programme)
Contract number: 261572
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Alexandre M.J.J. Bonvin, Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Web address: http://wenmr.eu
WeNMR project groups different research teams into a virtual research community at a worldwide level. WeNMR will consolidate the operation of the present services and provide an e-Infrastucture platform and structural biology Science Gateway towards the European Grid Initiative (EGI) for the users of existing infrastructures. It will involve researchers from around the world and will build bridges to other areas of structural biology. Integration with a rapidly growing and highly complementary method, SAXS, is directly included in WeNMR, but links will also be established to related cryo-EM and X-ray crystallography initiatives. WeNMR will serve all relevant INSTRUCT communities in line with the ESFRI roadmap.
High resolution tools to understand the functional role of protein intrinsic disorder (IDPbyNMR)
Start date: 1 November 2010
Duration: 48 months
Total funding: 3 431 831 EURO
Funding body: European Commission (the 7th Framework Programme)
Contract number: 264257
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Isabella C. Felli, Magnetic Resonance Center CERM, Florence, Italy
Web address: www.idpbynmr.eu
The aim of this project is to train young researchers to carry out atomic resolution studies of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) and intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) of structured proteins. This is a newly emerging area of research that is challenging well-established textbook concepts and ideas. Recently developed methods based on NMR spectroscopy and SAXS offer scientists a unique opportunity to structurally investigate the functional role of IDP states, as long as these methods are developed further and combined with a variety of complementary techniques. Scientific and technological progress in this area will open new avenues to understanding the role of IDPs and IDRs in key molecular processes at the basis of life and in various kinds of disease, such as neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases.
Integrated technology platform for synchrotron-based structural information for life-sciences
BMBF research grant
Starting date: 1 October 2010
Duration: 18 months
Total funding: € 297,832
Contract no: 05K10YEA
Coordinator: Victor Lamzin
This inter-institutional cooperation with our Russian partners aims at a breakthrough in automated technologies to obtain structures of macromolecular assemblies using synchrotron radiation, with emphasis on projects with medical relevance. The project involves EMBL Hamburg groups of Lamzin, Svergun and Wilmanns, and researchers in Moscow from Nano-Bio-Info-Cognitive Centre of Kurchatov Institute, Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and Moscow State University.