29-Sep-2021
Instruct-ERIC participated in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Science Summit 29 September 2021, organised by ERIC Forum as an opportunity to demonstrate the impact of Research Infrastructures (RIs) in supporting the UN Strategic Development Goals.
The 17 goals have been developed to provide specific targets for collaborators across the world – Instruct-ERIC Director, Professor Sir David Stuart, and Instruct Coordinator, Dr Susan Daenke, gave a talk at the Science Summit providing an overview of Instruct activity towards two such goals: Good Health and Well-being, and Life on Land.
Two Instruct scientific highlights were presented during the conference: Instruct-NL’s work with Janssen Vaccines to help characterise the SARS-CoV-2 S Trimer, and also research carried out by Instruct-BE in understanding the structure and function of GABAA receptors, and the consequential impacts on human mental health.
The summit was chaired by Francisco Colomer of JIVE-ERIC, and featured talks from several European RIs. Take a look at a snapshot of each highlight below, or explore the full article using the links provided.
Instruct Centre NeCEN collaborates with Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V in the development of a new SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
A team from Janssen Vaccines & Prevention B.V collaborated with the Netherlands Center for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) part of Instruct Centre NL to create and characterise new stable variants of the S trimer, one of the main targets for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development. The S trimer is a large viral surface protein crucial for the viral life cycle that mediates both the interaction and the fusion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with host cells, however its instability makes the isolation of stable S-closed proteins in a pre-fusion state challenging. The study developed a stable S protein, by producing new variants from single mutations. A stable variant was identified, then confirmed using cryo-EM that it retained the pre-fusion conformation – which could then be used in the advanced development of vaccines.
Read more on the Instruct-ERIC highlight
Instruct-BE reveals structure and signalling mechanisms of GABAA receptors using Cryo-EM
GABAA receptors are ligand-gated chloride channels in the vertebrate central nervous system, and are the targets of several human drugs. Despite the clinical importance of the GABAA receptor, its structure and functionality are not clear, with much of our understanding coming from invertebrate homologues and similar gated ion channels in humans. Laverty et al (2019) used megabodies to present the receptor’s structure “functionally reconstituted in lipid nanodiscs”, whilst Masiulis et al (2019) presented the receptor bound in 5 different complexes – both managing to solve the structure of full-length human α1β3γ2L GABAA receptors, utilising structural biology methods from the Instruct Centre BE – Nanobodies4Instruct facility.
Read more on the Instruct-ERIC highlight
