Seminar

Digging inside of macromolecules through X-Ray crystallography.

Adriana Rojas, PhD

Life on earth could be seen as a symphony in which an astronomical number of macromolecules work together in a highly regulated level. Understanding a specific biological process implies deciphering how a particular group of molecules interact in order to achieve a precise task. Nowadays, it is well established that the structure of a macromolecule endows its biological function and understanding it at atomic level, sheds light on the causes of different diseases. This knowledge opens the door to investigate new therapeutic targets. X-Ray Crystallography is the most powerful technique available today to elucidate the structure of a biological macromolecule at atomic detail. It can be applied to study the crystal structure of proteins, nucleic acids, macromolecular complexes or viruses. CIC bioGUNE enjoys state-of-the-art X-ray crystallography facilities that can support high-throughput crystallization experiments and conventional in house data collection. For external user, we offer crystallization and in house data collection as a service and we support the internal users from sample preparation to structural determination. One of our goals is to give the opportunity to researchers that do not have structural biology background to use this technique in their particular projects. In this seminar Dr. Adriana Rojas will introduce the technique and present some examples of our work at CIC bioGUNE.