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Structural biology and drug discovery

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Collage relatert til Forskningsenheten structural biology and drug discovery

Our research focuses on understanding the relationships between the structure of macromolecules and their function, stability and regulation. We use an interplay of advanced methodology in molecular, structural and cell biology as well as biophysics, compound screening, computational chemistry and drug discovery applied to studies of biological systems and pathways of biomedical interest.

The Unit is composed of four groups: Ruth Brenk, Inari Kursula, Petri Kursula and Aurora Martinez. Visit the group pages to learn more about our research.

In addition, we are involved in the organization and management of the core facility for Biophysics, Structural Biology and Screening (BiSS), localized at the Department of Biomedicine.

Nanobody Symposium
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Apr 24

Symposium on Nanobodies and Neuroscience

Nanobodies consist of the variable domain of camelid single-chain antibodies (or VHH) and are a class of tiny antibody fragments that have gained significant attention in the field of biotechnology and medical research. Nanobodies offer several advantages over traditional antibodies, such as low...

Nanotools for molecular neuroscience
CNPase with 5 nanobodies

Anti-CNPase nanobodies light up myelin

CNPase is an enzyme present at high levels in myelinating cells. Novel nanobody tools developed in an international collaboration were used to identify binding epitopes at atomic resolution and visualise myelin. Additionally, the nanobodies were used as intrabodies to bind to CNPase in living cells....

TargetRNA
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Funding for interdisciplinary MSCA doctoral training network about targeting RNA with small molecules

TargetRNA is an EU Horizon funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) doctoral training network. In this network, 16 PhD students will be trained in RNA-ligand design in the context of antimicrobial drug discovery.

Improving services of EU-Openscreen
Ribotacs

Funding for work on Ribotacs

As part of a consortium lead by the EU-Openscreen head office with the overall goal to improve the services offered by EU-Openscreen, the Brenk group has got funding to work on Ribotacs. Ribotacs are small molecules that selectively bind RNAs and a RNAse and thus lead targeted RNA degradation. We...

Funding for large-scale interdisciplinary project
eHACS

Escaping the Combinatorial Explosion: Expert-Enhanced Heuristic Navigation of Chemical Space (eHACS)

Project funding from the NFR to carry out a collaborative project on expert-enhanced de novo design of small molecules.