Belgian BAG

The BAG includes groups situated at four Flemish universities: Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent and Leuven. Several of these groups are part of the elite Flemish Institute of Biotechnology (VIB). The proposed projects are highly diverse, including viral, prokaryotic and eukaryotic proteins with a strong focus on targets and processes of biomedical relevance. Many projects deal with membrane proteins, cell surface receptors and protein-protein complexes. Central to the research in the BAG associated groups is the employment of integrative methods in structural biology combining X-ray crystallography, SAXS, and cryo-electron microscopy. Many crystals in the various proposed projects are small in size and radiation sensitive, requiring the use of the high brilliance MX beam lines, preferably with micro-focused X-rays. This is a continuation of a previous Belgian BAG which has resulted in numerous top-tier publications.

本BAG的研究团队依托四所弗拉芒地区高校组建，分别为安特卫普大学、布鲁塞尔大学、根特大学与鲁汶大学。其中多个团队隶属于顶尖的弗拉芒生物技术研究所（Flemish Institute of Biotechnology, VIB）。本次拟实施的研究项目覆盖领域极为广泛，涵盖病毒、原核生物与真核生物蛋白质，且高度聚焦具有生物医学研究价值的靶点与生物学过程。诸多项目围绕膜蛋白、细胞表面受体以及蛋白质-蛋白质复合物展开研究。BAG关联团队的研究核心为整合式结构生物学方法的应用，即融合X射线晶体学、小角X射线散射（SAXS）与冷冻电子显微镜技术开展研究。各拟实施项目中的诸多晶体尺寸微小且对辐射敏感，因此需使用高亮度大分子晶体学（MX）光束线，优先配备微聚焦X射线装置。本项目为此前比利时BAG的延续，该前期项目已产出多篇顶刊学术论文。