Several new European synchrotrons, now on the drawing board or under construction, are scheduled to go on line by 2006 or 2007. BIOXHIT calls for them to begin using the platform from their first day of operations.
One immediate effect of BIOXHIT will be a significant reduction in the time involved in obtaining each structure. Robots, for example, can perform tasks automatically, quickly, and at a consistent and high precision, replacing time-consuming manual steps. The project specifically calls for improvements in the process by which samples are handled, the equipment needed to detect X-ray patterns, and the computers and software needed to model structures. A result of this will be to attract more researchers to work on protein structures.
"Biocrystallography used to be a field for specialists," Lamzin says, "but today, researchers from all walks of biology want to solve molecular structures at the synchrotrons. The new platform will make this process very user-friendly; it will even allow them to send us their samples and work remotely, from their own institutions."
"This grant from the EC will definitely make Europe a substantial player in this area," Lamzin notes. "As well as uniting technologies, BIOXHIT will unite other European and national activities into one strong European alliance, giving us the strength to be a major competitor in Structural Genomics on a global scale. Similar initiatives are already underway in the US and Japan, our two main competitors in this area."
Training activities are a cornerstone of the project. A number of Training, Implementation and Dissemination centres will b
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Contact: Trista Dawson
dawson@embl.de
49-6221-387-452
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
12-Feb-2004