EMBL Hamburg,
14 December 2012
Call for Beamtime applications now open!
The 2013 call for proposals for beamtime at the EMBL beamlines is now open.
more
Hamburg,
4 December 2012
The first European School for Macromolecular Crystallography held at EMBL Hamburg
From the 19th to the 26th November, EMBL Hamburg hosted the first joint EMBL – CCP4 training course entitled the European School for Macromolecular Crystallography (ESMAX). The course welcomed 20 students and 22 tutors from across the world. The eight day intense course included beamline practicals, computational tutorials and lectures on aspects of data collection, phasing, processing and model building.
more
Hamburg,
4 December 2012
1st XBI consortium meeting held in Hamburg
On the 25th and 26th October ca. 30 delegates met in Hamburg to discuss the XFEL-based Biology Infrastructure (XBI), which EMBL together with eight other institutions will build on the premises of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser Facility in Hamburg/Schenefeld. The 1st XBI consortium meeting included talks on the technology development relevant to XBI and a closed session focusing on the partner contribution and organisation of the project.
more
EMBL Hamburg,
3 December 2012
Unzipping melanocyte regulation
Scientists from EMBL Hamburg have resolved the structure of a transcription factor crucial in the development of melanoma. The data published today in the journal Genes and Development provide a rational basis for the treatment of important hereditary diseases and cancer by targeting MITF.
more
EMBL Hamburg,
16 November 2012
Sixth EMBO Practical Course on Solution Scattering from Biological Macromolecules hosted at EMBL Hamburg
From the 17th to the 24th of October, EMBL Hamburg hosted the sixth EMBO Practical Course on Solution Scattering from Biological Macromolecules. Twenty six participants and almost 20 speakers from across the globe met in Hamburg for the eight day course which included lectures and hands-on computer and beamline tutorials.
more
Hamburg,
23 October 2012
Goodbye DORIS!
After 38 years of operation, the DORIS synchrotron ring on the DESY campus was shut down for the last time at 8am on Monday 22nd October. To mark almost four decades of service and research at DORIS, current and past scientists, engineers, users and support staff were invited to attend a series of talks in the afternoon commemorating the history of the synchrotron ring. The event was rounded off with an informal get-together with drinks and snacks.
more
Mumbai,
22 October 2012
Head of EMBL Hamburg and Major of Hamburg attend 7th Hanseatic Indian Colloquium in Mumbai
Last week Matthias Wilmanns, head of EMBL Hamburg, joined the first Major of Hamburg Olaf Scholz and colleagues from Hamburg Life Sciences industries in Mumbai, on the last leg of their tour of India organized by the North German Life Sciences Agency Norgenta. In Mumbai the delegation participated in the 7th Hanseatic Indian Colloquium where discussion focused on opportunities for Indo-German collaboration in drug development and research.
more
Hamburg,
1 October 2012
Looking back at the first year of BioStruct-X
The end of the first year of the EU project BioStruct-X coordinated by Matthias Wilmanns at EMBL Hamburg was marked by the first annual meeting held in Oxford, UK from the 26th – 27th September 2012. The project which will run until September 2015 involves 19 partners from 11 countries and provides integrated transnational user access to 44 European synchrotron radiation installations.
more
Hamburg,
26 September 2012
Angela Merkel visits the DESY campus to rename the PETRA III experimental hall
The federal chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel visited the DESY campus last week to take part in a ceremony to rename the experimental hall of the synchrotron ring PETRA III. Together with Hamburg’s First Mayor Olaf Scholz, Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry Ada Yonath and DESY Director Helmut Dosch, Angela Merkel symbolically renamed the experimental hall of the world’s most brilliant X-ray source PETRA III “Max von Laue”. Exactly one hundred years ago, Max von Laue discovered X-ray diffraction by crystals that opened the door to the exploration of the nanocosm and the basis of the field of modern structural biology.
more
Hamburg,
14 September 2012
An action packed EMBO Practical course in Hamburg
From the 3rd – 11th September EMBL Hamburg hosted the EMBO Practical Course on Protein Expression, Purification and Characterisation course. Now in its 8th installment, the biannual EMBO Practical course on Protein Expression, Purification and Characterisation brought together 20 participants from 15 nations and renowned scientists from the field of molecular biology.
more
Hamburg,
20 August 2012
Synchrotron radiation helps discover viral tricks to influence the human immune response
Together with collaborators from Ghent University (Belgium) and the EMBL-Grenoble (France), EMBL Hamburg scientists have helped to shed light on the mechanisms of immune response modulation caused by the Epstein-Barr virus responsible for a range of diseases. Understanding how the viral protein BARF-1 neutralizes the human growth factor hCSF-1 has implications on the development of therapies and drug compounds.
more
Hamburg,
20 July 2012
Structural biology advanced further with the joint efforts of the CCP4 and ARP/wARP researchers
On the 16th of July the first joint release of the most innovative versions of CCP4 and the EMBL Hamburg’s ARP/wARP software suites met a long-standing demand of the macromolecular crystallography community.
more
Hamburg,
29 June 2012
Multipronge on-line sample characterization and purification at the Petra-3 SAXS beamline
At the end of June the Svergun Group implemented a multi-detector size exclusion chromatography (SEC) system at the PETRA-III BioSAXS beamline of EMBL Hamburg.
more
EMBL Hamburg,
20 June 2012
First remote measurement on the BioSAXS beamline at PETRAIII
On Friday 15th June users conducted the first remote experiment on the EMBL Hamburg BioSAXS beamline at the PETRA III ring.
more
EMBL Hamburg,
18 June 2012
First EMBL Advanced Course on Hybrid Structural Biology Approaches held at EMBL Hamburg
From the 11th – 16th June 2012, EMBL Hamburg hosted the first EMBL Advanced Course on Hybrid Structural Biology Approaches. Sixteen students from across Europe attended the 6 day course which included lectures and practical sessions on Sample Preparation and Characterization, Small Angle X-ray Scattering, Marcomolecular Crystallography and Electron Microscopy.
more
Hamburg,
1 May 2012
New structural data reveal molecular mechanisms of kidney disease
Scientists at EMBL Hamburg have published new data this week which could become useful in improving treatments of certain types of kidney disease. Krisztian Fodor from the Wilmanns Group at EMBL Hamburg worked on an enzyme known as AGT, the malfunction of which is known to be important in the development of the kidney disease PH1. The structure of the AGT enzyme in complex with its receptor molecule showed that receptor recognition highly depends on a properly folded protein and revealed how mutations can lead to irreversible kidney damage. The researchers hope this knowledge can lead to improvements in the treatment of the disease.
more
Hamburg,
15 February 2012
Unravelling the secret of muscle elasticity
Scientists from several groups across Europe including EMBL Hamburg have joined forces to unravel the mechanism behind the elasticity of muscles. Using a hybrid structural approach, they have been able to determine the architecture of a section of the muscle filament-linking protein myomesin. The data show that myomesin is folded into a superhelical coil arrangement and acts as a highly elastic ribbon that can be stretched to 2.5 times its original length. This mechanism has never been observed before and could explain how muscles can behave elastically while still keeping their overall structural organisation.
more