Instruct Academic Services Limited

Instruct-ERIC is a distributed European research infrastructure in structural biology, making high-end technologies and methods available to researchers. Instruct infrastructure provides the technical frameworks with which we can interpret molecular and cellular functions. The main experimental technologies that Instruct offers are complementary, and increasingly link detailed atomic structure of single molecules or macromolecular complexes with their cellular context. Instruct offers access to the full catalogue of services in the infrastructure, through a single entry point. It supports proposals that use different technologies to build up knowledge of functional mechanisms and intracellular dynamics with atomic structure information and integrate these into an understanding of cellular processes in the native environment and in real time.

Role in the TRANSVAC project

Through its centres Instruct-IT and Instruct-UK, Instruct-ERIC provides the expertise and the technology for performing specific structural biology studies that have a key role in vaccinology: Structural analysis of vaccine antigens. Engineering vaccines for improved physio-chemical properties. Engineering vaccines for improved antigenic properties. The users interested in structure characterisation and who wish to benefit from the Instruct-ERIC services will be guided so as to optimise their experimental planning and their application for Instruct-ERIC services.

Main staff involved in TRANSVAC

Prof. Lucia Banci (Instruct-IT) – NMR methods; Prof. David Stuart (Instruct-UK) – X-ray methods; Prof. Peijun Zhang (Instruct-UK) – cryo-EM methods;

The Facility

Instruct-ERIC provides its services via nine major Centres in Europe, and is coordinated from offices in Oxford, UK. The full catalogue of infrastructure services is described at www.structuralbiology.eu/platform-catalogue and the proposal management system is managed using the online tool ARIA. All access includes expert help and support for the user and the project. All data generated as part of the project remains the property of the user. Instruct Centres in Italy and the UK have special expertise in structural vaccinology and will provide the major services for TRANSVAC2 projects.

TNA or Training provided

The service provision model of Instruct-ERIC includes the close support, at all stages of the work, of expert scientists to ensure the best outcome for the researcher. If the user of access provision is onsite in an Instruct Centre, the supervision provides practical and theoretical training at source. In addition, Instruct hosts tailored practical training courses and workshops in advanced techniques and methods in structural determination which can be accessed by interested parties on a competitive basis. These courses and the upcoming programme of training events will be communicated to TRANSVAC participants.

Description

 

 

 

Description