10-Oct-2025
Lithuania has now been confirmed as hosting an Instruct-ERIC Research Site. Research Sites provide training, outreach, and networking activities for Instruct users, members, and researchers.
The Lithuania research site is hosted at Vilnius University Life Sciences Center (VU LSC), which covers a broad range of scientific fields and experimental techniques, enabling a multidisciplinary approach to address fundamental questions in life sciences.
VU LSC hosts research groups with expertise in protein production and analysis, protein X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM SPA, bioinformatics, AFM, membrane biology, and biothermodynamics – the facility serves as the national hub for structural biology in Lithuania.
Dr Giedrius Sasnauskas, Senior Researcher at VU LSC, commented: “Establishment of the Instruct-LT Research Site will undoubtedly stimulate collaboration between Lithuanian and European structural biology centres, and contribute to the development of life sciences in Lithuania."
Lithuania has been a member of Instruct since 2019, and in that time has participated in several services and events, including access visits, internships, and at the Instruct Biennial Structural Biology Conference.
Prof. Harald Schwalbe, Instruct-ERIC Director, commented: “The excellent science conducted by our colleagues in Lithuania has been recognised for long. The establishment of a Lithuanian research site within Instruct will further our scientific interactions and will enable fruitful interactions and growth of integrated structural biology across Europe.”
The research site will coordinate training events for structural biology researchers in Lithuania and the wider European community, in conjunction with Instruct’s annual training programme.
Instruct-LV held a symposium in October 2023, bringing together expert research teams in structural biology across Lithuania, with guest speakers from Instruct, Instruct-FI, and Instruct-ES.
Prof. Harald Schwalbe presenting at the Structural Biology in Lithuania and Beyond Symposium in October 2023.
An Instruct-ERIC Research Site can be an individual facility or organisation, or a consortium of organisations within a country that can offer a centralised national hub. Separate to Instruct centres/facilities, research sites do not offer access to research equipment/technologies – however it is in the pipeline of a country or organisation becoming an Instruct centre of excellence.
The announcement follows the news that Latvia also established an Instruct Research Site earlier in 2025.
Find out more about Instruct-ERIC Research Sites here, and contact us to find out how they are established.
