Research Units
Structural Biology Unit
Structural Biology studies the relationship between the structure of biological macromolecules and their intrinsic function.
Biological macromolecules play an important role in all cellular procceses. Structural Biology studies the relationship between the structure of biological macromolecules and their intrinsic function, to understand chemical reactions which are crucial to life. The aim of our unit is to elucidate the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, as well as their complexes. We try to understand the structural basis involved in important biological proccesses like signal transduction, bacterial pathogenesis, macromolecular interactions or gene expression. We make use of biophysical techniques such as Macromolecular Crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or Cryo-Electron microscopy and also computational techniques to characterize the structure of these molecules at high resolution.
Laboratory 1
- Principal Investigator:
- Alfonso Martínez De la Cruz
The laboratory is focused on two main projects. The first one investigates how cystathionine ß-synthase (CBS) domains regulate the activity of their target proteins upon...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 3
- Principal Investigator:
- Aitor Hierro Ayuela
Our research interest is focused on intracellular trafficking processes. Eukaryotic cells have elaborate mechanisms of protein transport through vesicular trafficking. The Golgi is...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 4
- Principal Investigator:
- Mikel Valle Rodríguez
We observe working molecular motors to understand their functioning. By means of cryo-electron microscopy we can obtain 3D maps of such motors under nearly physiological...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 5
- Principal Investigator:
- Nicola G. A. Abrescia
Biological complexity is often associated with processes which require highly accurate and regulated protein interactions. Examples of such complexity can be found in the assembly...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 7
- Principal Investigator:
- Oscar Millet
Mutations in the primary sequence of enzymes are often ultimately responsible for a large number of autosomal diseases. In our laboratory we pursue the structural...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 8
- Principal Investigator:
- Francisco Blanco
We study the structure-function of proteins relevant for the onset and progression of cancer. Our main work consists on the structural...
Laboratory webpageLaboratory 6
- Principal Investigator:
- Sean Connell
Laboratory 9
- Principal Investigator:
- Paola Fucini