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LATVIAN

BIOMEDICAL

RESEARCH AND STUDY CENTRE


RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN BIOMEDICINE FROM GENES TO HUMAN

Instruct-ERIC

Instruct-ERIC

Instruct-ERIC (Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure) is European research infrastructure, granting access to scientists from member countries to necessary equipment, technologies and expertise in structural biology.

Instruct-ERIC also organizes courses and workshops in structural biology methods and technologies, supports internships in Instruct-ERIC centres, grants pilot-projects for young researchers, organizes scientific conferences and acts as a joint hub for structural biologists in Europe.

At the moment there are 13 countries and 9 Centres in Instruct-ERIC. Instruct-ERIC Centres organize and support access to national structural biology infrastructure and take part in other Instruct-ERIC activities.

Latvian national contact point and its organizations

At the moment in Latvia there are two organizations in which significant research in structural biology field are carried out – Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre (LBMC) and Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS).

Short description of LBMC structural biology group:

  • Published papers in SCOPUS during last 5 years – 48
  • Main areas of research:
  • Structural investigations of ssRNA phages and applications of their virus-like particles in vaccine development
  • Structural investigations of Borrelia surface proteins
  • Structural investigations of pharmacologically relevant proteins:
    • Structural investigations of enzymes and their microcompartments, involved in trimethylamine metabolism
    • Structural investigations of carbonic anhydrases

Short description of NMR group of LIOS:

  • Published papers in SCOPUS during last 5 years – 24
  • Main areas of research:
  • Structural investigations of protein interactions with LIOS drug candidates
  • Development of ssNMR technology
  • Structural investigations of spider silk proteins
  • Structural investigations of amyloid fibers

National infrastructure

Infrastructure at LBMC:

  • Standard equipment for cloning (PCR machines, centrifuges, electrophoresis units, etc)
  • Equipment for protein production in bacterial, yeast and insect cell cultures (incubators, sterile rooms, laminars, cold rooms, small scale fermenter)
  • Equipment for protein purification (chromatoghraphy systems like Akta Explorer, Akta FPLC, Akta prime, ultracentrifuges, etc)
  • Bruker Daltonics MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer
  • Equipment for protein crystallization – thermoregulated crystallization room and incubators, TECAN Freedom Evo crystallization robot, microscopes, accessories for cryocrystallography
  • In-house protein crystal diffraction system Bruker X8 Proteum with Microstar x-ray generator and CCD detector

Infrastructure at LIOS:

  • Standard equipment for cloning (PCR machines, centrifuges, electrophoresis units, etc)
  • Equipment for protein production in bacterial, yeast and insect cell cultures (incubators, sterile rooms, laminars, cold rooms, small scale fermenter)
  • Equipment for protein purification (chromatoghraphy systems like Akta Explorer, Akta FPLC, Akta prime, ultracentrifuges, etc)
  • Bruker Daltonics MALDI-TOF mass spectrometer
  • Equipment for protein crystallization – thermoregulated crystallization room and incubators, TECAN Freedom Evo crystallization robot, microscopes, accessories for cryocrystallography
  • In-house protein crystal diffraction system Bruker X8 Proteum with Microstar x-ray generator and CCD detector

Latvian contact point (contact person)

Prof. Kaspars Tārs

kaspars@biomed.lu.lv

https://instruct-eric.eu/countries