Stuctural biology

Group head: G. Leonard

Our group operates 9 end-stations for structural biology research, providing a wide range of cutting-edge facilities for macromolecular crystallography (MX), small-angle X-ray scattering (bioSAXS), in crystallo spectroscopy (icOS) and cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).

The group carries out an exciting range of biological research projects ranging from crystallographic structural studies to biochemistry, molecular biology, cellular biology and modelling. Furthermore, we carry out development of crystallography methods and beamline technology to improve automation, experimental options and data analysis techniques, which are available to the ESRF Structural Biology User community. The group has established strong collaborations with a number of groups from around Europe and joint students and visitors are a regular feature.

The group hosts the Molecular Biology Laboratory, devoted to in-house research as part of the ESRF participation in the Partnership on Structural Biology (PSB) together with the neighbouring institutes EMBL,  IBS and ILL. The ESRF benefits from this environment and the combined set of technology platforms forming the core of the PSB. The laboratory has different areas specifically designed for molecular biology, protein/DNA purification, biochemistry and bacterial/yeast and mammalian cell culture.

Go to the Structural Biology group web page

Current PhD projects:

• Time-Resolved Studies of Signalling Transducer-Membrane Proteins at A Fourth Generation X-Ray Synchrotron Source (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Time-Resolved Protein Crystallography (in partnership with Hamburg University)
• Exploiting Serial Crystallography in Structure-based Drug Design (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Complementary Use of X-Ray Serial Crystallography and Electron Microscopy to Elucidate Mechanisms of Two‐Component Signalling System (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
• High-Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy of Antibody – Antigen Complexes (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
•  Structural Basis of Melanogenesis Enzymes (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Assembly of The Mitochondrial Respiratory Complex I and Underlying Molecular Mechanisms in Alzheimer’s Pathogenesis (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)
• Structural Basis of SARS-Cov2 Viral Proteins (in partnership with Université Grenoble Alpes)