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15 Feb 2021

Emerging Topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance - Roland Riek (ETH Zürich) and Patrick van der Wel (University of Groningen)

The series Emerging topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance will continue on February 18^th at 16:00 CEST with the following lecturers and topics:

Roland Riek (ETH Zürich): On automated structure and multi-state structure determination by NMR
Patrick van der Wel (University of Groningen): SSNMR-detected mobility in substrate-mediated protein activation

11 Feb 2021

Upgrades in the Josef Dadok National NMR Centre in 2020

In the period of 2020 to 2022, the spectrometers in the Josef Dadok National NMR Centre are undergoing thorough upgrades. In late 2020, the electronics of the instruments was replaced by the latest Bruker technology AVANCE NEO. The only difference visible from the outside is that the electronics cabinets are now smaller, half the previous size. And from the functionality point of view, there are improvements in flexibility and stability. The AVANCE NEO is based on a ‘transceive’ principle, meaning each NMR channel has both transmit and receive capabilities.

In 2021, the upgrades will continue by acquiring new probes.

8 Feb 2021

Emerging Topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance - Babis Kalodimos (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) and Rachel Martin (University of California, Irvine)

The series Emerging topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance will continue on February 11^th at 16:00 CEST with the following lecturers and topics:

Babis Kalodimos (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital): The conformational landscape of protein kinases in physiology and disease
Rachel Martin (University of California, Irvine): Additive fabrication methods for reproducible, open-source NMR instrumentation

3 Feb 2021

iNEXT-Discovery 1st Annual Scientific Meeting

This First Annual Scientific Meeting will take place online on February 16th, 2021 and is open for everybody with an interest to learn more about modern structural biology, recent technological developments and their applications. An interesting program with excellent internal and external speakers is currently being prepared and some slots for 5' Flash Talk are still available - you can register and send a short abstract.

2 Feb 2021

Emerging Topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance - Tanja Mittag (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) and Adam Lange (Humboldt-University Berlin)

The series Emerging topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance will continue on February 4^th at 16:00 CEST with the following lecturers and topics:

Tanja Mittag (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital): Understanding the molecular interactions underlying liquid-liquid phase separation of low-complexity domains
Adam Lange (Humboldt-University Berlin): Atomic structures and functional dynamics of rhomboid proteases, non-selective cation channels, and bacteriophage tail tubes

26 Jan 2021

Emerging Topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance - Francesca Marassi (Sanford Burnham Prebys) and Katherine Henzler-Wildman (UW-Madison/NMRFAM)

The series Emerging topics in Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance will continue on January 28^th at 16:00 CEST with the following lecturers and topics:

Francesca Marassi (Sanford Burnham Prebys): Molecular insights to calcified deposit formation from NMR
Katherine Henzler-Wildman (UW-Madison/NMRFAM): Breaking down the mechanism of a proton-coupled transporter

Highlights of Coronavirus Structural Studies

5 May 2020

Structure, Function, and Antigenicity of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has resulted in >90,000 infections and >3,000 deaths. Coronavirus spike (S) glycoproteins promote entry into cells and are the main target of antibodies. We show that SARS-CoV-2 S uses ACE2 to enter cells and that the receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 S and SARS-CoV S bind with similar affinities to human ACE2, correlating with the efficient spread of SARS-CoV-2 among humans. We found that the SARS-CoV-2 S glycoprotein harbors a furin cleavage site at the boundary between the S₁/S₂ subunits, which is processed during biogenesis and sets this virus apart from SARS-CoV and SARS-related CoVs. In the study published in Cell, David Veesler with coworkers determined cryo-EM structures of the SARS-CoV-2 S ectodomain trimer, providing a blueprint for the design of vaccines and inhibitors of viral entry. Finally, they demonstrate that SARS-CoV S murine polyclonal antibodies potently inhibited SARS-CoV-2 S mediated entry into cells, indicating that cross-neutralizing antibodies targeting conserved S epitopes can be elicited upon vaccination.

Newsletters

Reader's Corner Archive

TIP

30 Jul 2019

Principles for Integrative Structural Biology Studies

Guru of integrative structural biology computation Andrej Sali and Michale P. Rout summarize in the recent Cell Primer Principles for Integrative Structural Biology Studies.

Visualization of biological macromolecules at near-atomic resolution: cryo-electron microscopy comes of age

The topical review by Alok K. Mitra recapitulates developments and transformational advances of cryo-EM technology.

16 Jul 2019

The expanding toolkit for structural biology: synchrotrons, X-ray lasers and cryo-EM

Samar Hasnain et. al. describe the steadily-expanding methodologies for atomic resolution studies in The expanding toolkit for structural biology: synchrotrons, X-ray lasers and cryo-EM. Of note is the following statistics: Despite the wealth of structures in the Protein Data Bank, a closer examination reveals that 89% of the structures, i.e. 126 994, are of proteins or complexes with a molecular weight of less than 160 kDa. Furthermore, only 4% of the deposited structures have a molecular weight in excess of 300 kDa.