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.

BAG涵盖弗拉芒地区四所高校的科研团队：安特卫普大学、布鲁塞尔大学、根特大学与鲁汶大学。其中多支团队隶属于顶尖弗拉芒生物技术研究所（Flemish Institute of Biotechnology，VIB）。本次拟推进的研究项目类型丰富多元，涵盖病毒、原核生物与真核生物来源的蛋白质，核心聚焦于具有生物医学相关性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关联团队的核心研究手段为整合结构生物学方法，结合X射线晶体衍射（X-ray crystallography）、小角X射线散射（SAXS）以及冷冻电子显微镜（cryo-electron microscopy）技术。各拟议项目中的大量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，优先选用微聚焦X射线装置。本项目是此前比利时BAG项目的延续，该项目已产出多篇顶级期刊学术论文。