Structural Biology in Marseille

Our BAG groups 8 teams from 4 Marseille laboratories. Research themes deal with infection, health and biotechnology. For 107 projects within this proposal we foresee 10 MX and 2 SAXS shifts for the next beam time allocation period. This amount of beam time reflects what we had asked for in the previous proposal round. Two teams of the BAG combine structural biology with medicinal chemistry and beam time at MASSIF for large ligand-screening campaigns will mostly suit their research purposes. Access to beamlines with tuneable energy will be instrumental for projects requiring phasing by MAD or MIRAS. One team uses exclusively Bio-SAXS and allocation of one shift/session would be welcomed. Remote access for MX sessions has become very popular whereas scientists prefer to be on-site for Bio-SAXS experiments. We are grateful to the ESRF staff for always being forthcoming with regard to scheduling, logistics and experiments, allowing the BAG to produce good Science in a comfortable setting.

本光束分配组（BAG）汇集了来自马赛4家实验室的8支研究团队，其研究方向涵盖感染学、健康科学与生物技术领域。本提案涉及107个研究项目，我们预计在下一轮光束时间分配周期内，可获批10次大分子晶体学（MX, Macromolecular Crystallography）实验时长与2次小角X射线散射（SAXS, Small-Angle X-ray Scattering）实验时长。该时长配额与我们在上一轮提案申请中提出的需求相符。本BAG下设两支将结构生物学与药物化学相结合的研究团队，面向大规模配体筛选项目的MASSIF光束线站实验时长可充分匹配其研究目标。具备可调谐能量的光束线站，对于需通过多波长反常衍射（MAD, Multi-wavelength Anomalous Diffraction）或多波长同晶置换反常散射（MIRAS, Multi-wavelength Isomorphous Replacement Anomalous Scattering）完成相位解析的项目至关重要。另有一支团队仅开展生物小角X射线散射（Bio-SAXS）相关研究，若能获批一次实验时长将极大契合其研究需求。当前，大分子晶体学实验的远程访问模式已广受认可，但研究人员更倾向于现场开展生物小角X射线散射实验。我们谨向欧洲同步辐射光源（ESRF, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility）的全体工作人员致以诚挚谢意，感谢其在实验调度、后勤保障与实验操作等环节始终提供鼎力支持，使本BAG得以在舒适的环境中产出高质量科研成果。