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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - iNEXT (Infrastructure for NMR, EM and X-rays for translational research)

Teaser

Summary

The initiative â€œInfrastructure for NMR, EM and X-rays for Translational Researchâ€, shortly iNEXT, aims to integrate and open up key research infrastructures in structural biology to European researchers, ensuring optimal infrastructure use. The project started on September 1 2015, and 25 consortium members will use a 10 Mâ‚¬ budget over a period of four years for the direct and indirect benefit of users. As an integrated activity, iNEXT not only allows Trans-national Access (TA) to external users (covering experimental costs and travel), but also involves partners to Networking Activities between themselves and with external communities, and enables Joint Research Activities to promote the quantity and quality of future user access to structural biology facilities.

Structural biology research is key to obtain atomic three-dimensional information on biomolecules (proteins, DNA, hormones, drugs, etc.) and their interactions. This is heavily exploited in biotechnological and biomedical developments. High-end research infrastructure is essential to determine these three-dimensional structures, yet remains too expensive to deploy locally.

Opening up access to high-end structural biology infrastructures has been a long-term success-story, supported by EU-funding over more than two decades. iNEXT builds on the success of previous EU-funding schemes. iNEXT brings diverse technological platforms for structural biology together, for the first time ever in a single, strong consortium. Historical successful X-ray and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance infrastructures are enforced with cutting edge structural biology institutes for Electron Microscopy, advanced light microscopy and molecular biophysics. Our user access to EM is the first such paradigm worldwide.

Work performed

Trans-national Access
Trans-national Access to stimulate translational (biotechnological, biomedical) advances is the core pillar of iNEXT. Instead of opening up equipment for different structural biology techniques only to experts, iNEXT combines this â€˜traditionalâ€™ expert access with structural biology discovery modalities to encourage and engage integrative research, and to attract scientists new to structural biology to perform scientific projects that aim for translational developments.

To facilitate user access, the iNEXT website allows continuous submission of projects for all access modalities, organized according to the technology requested and the experience level of the user. In the first 18 months of iNEXT, all access possibilities were systematically opened to the public, and already 175 user projects were accepted (out of 234 projects submitted and peer-reviewed). Access has been provided for 122 projects, involving over 300 different users coming from most European, but also submitted from extra-EU countries. The X-ray and NMR platforms mobilize next to their stable user base also novel life science and other new communities via iNEXT. The new EM access facilities show growing popularity and are, also due to limited available EM capacity in general, oversubscribed. Since all projects have a mandatory translational component, advances toward drug development and in the fields of biotechnology and -materials start to become evident in the scientific output.

Networking Activities
Several Networking Activities were initiated, to inform the public about iNEXT and structural biology in general, to function as a discussion partner in the European Research Area, to attract new users, and to mobilize a user community of academic and commercial parties to interact with each other and the access-providing Partners.

Posters and presentations were shown at many events, and brochures and newsletters were distributed widely. To reach out via social media a LinkedIn group and Twitter account were created.

All partners met at two iNEXT meetings that also encouraged interactions with external boards. Users presented their results obtained at the Research Infrastructures, while scientific and technological progress from the partners was also highlighted.

For broad outreach to engage new communities, iNEXT participated in large meetings, such as the 7th EMBO Meeting targeting over 1,000 attending life science academics, and the 24th PSDI meeting targeting 150 participants mainly from companies.

Existing and potential users had the opportunity to be trained in contemporary topics during two workshops organized by iNEXT Training and Dissemination Centers. At least five additional workshops are planned.

To strengthen the position of iNEXT in the European research landscape, besides the synergy with ESFRI-projects Instruct, ESS and EuroBioImaging, combined meetings were organized with other Horizon 2020 projects. Joint iNEXT/Instruct Foresight meetings will take place with representatives of several EU-initiatives.

Joint Research Activities
iNEXT has three highly interactive Joint Research Activities, directed to improve services to researchers in health and biotech.

Developing Structure Guided Drug Discovery Workflows leads to improved workflows for crystal harvesting and X-ray data collection, allowing access to ligand- and fragment-based drug discovery.

Enabling technologies for integral membrane protein systems remains a crucial, continuously challenging endeavor in drug discovery. Membrane sample preparation and characterization workflows are being optimized, and emerging insights will be applied to case studies.

Enabling integrative methodologies for cellular structural biology combines in-cell NMR and cryo-EM approaches to provide structural information for proteins and nucleic acids in highly relevant biological systems. These will be related to biophysical and light imaging techniques for interaction studies.

Final results

iNEXT enables access to diverse high-end structural biology instruments and expertise via carefully designed workflows for the first time worldwide, thereby strongly stimulating translational research. All major structural biology techniques are available under a common umbrella, and expert support and on-site training is provided both by physical visits and by remote access.

The main direct impact of iNEXT comes from widening Trans-national Access for Structural Biology to a community broader than ever before. iNEXT access is entirely focused on innovative and translational aspects, and already results in output not only in the traditional structural biology area, but ranging from basic biological and biochemical research all the way to drug development (small molecules, vaccines) and biotechnology (engineered enzymes, better characterized nano-materials).

Direct iNEXT impact is also imminent from employment of academic scientists, providing them with career opportunities and allowing the longer-term impact from on-site training of visiting researchers. The Life Sciences sector will be a major growing socio-economic factor contributing to health and biotechnology, and Europe can play a major role via a strong innovation agenda. Structural biology, and advanced research platforms available to a growing Life Science community will be essential to enable such innovation. iNEXT strongly contributes by creating a diverse multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary culture and integrating research and expertise of the structural biology and life science communities both in academia, medical institutes and industry.