The Center for Membrane Proteomics (CMP), Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany

The CMP hosts 40 research groups from four faculties of the University of Frankfurt, the Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysics and the Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research. It is headed by the Managing director, Prof. Dr. Anna Starzinki-Powitz, with a coordinating office as administrative unit. CMP provides a framework for joined research activities of scientists studying structure, function and biology of membrane proteins. The integration of Genetics, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacy, Chemistry, Cell Biology, Bioinformatics and computational Biophysics, Biophysics, Structural Biology, and Medicine is one of the strongholds of the CMP. Research groups within the CMP have access to a large array of powerful methods to solve basic questions in membrane proteomics. The research centers around four main themes: signalling, transport, bioenergetics and compartmentalization. Priorities on membrane protein research is reflected by two colla borative research centres (SFB 472 “Bioenergetics” and SFB628 “Functional Membrane Proteomics”) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
The CMP provides a series of services to realize synergies in membrane protein research in Frankfurt. A large facility for microscopy and spectroscopy, a cutting-edge laboratory for proteomics headed by Prof. Michael Karas, access to the large NMR-Facility of the Centre for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance (400-900 KhZMHz) including solid-phase NMR form the the core for technical services including professional support for researchers. The CMP supports research by a series of accompanying activities, including:

• Short-term fellowships for young scientists at the beginning of their research within CMP were funded by short-term fellowships for an immediate start after a review process.
• The CMP cross-gender group-mentoring programme “SciMento” accompanies female scientists (Ph.D. students, post-docs and junior-professors) during their research being coached by external senior scientists from other research institution.
• Internal laboratory training and courses for Ph.D. students in techniques resident within CMP to support and widening their repertoire of methods for research
• Weekly informal meetings organized by young CMP-researchers are a quite successful measure for networking, communication, exchange of know-how and material.

The coordinating office of CMP provides a series of professional services for its members including support for setting up research proposals, research on funding programmes, fundraising, complete support for set up of conferences, meetings, and summer schools. It also gives management support for international consortia.

http://www.cmp.uni-frankfurt.de

The Groningen Biomolecular Science and Biotechnology Institute (GBB), Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RuG), The Netherlands

The Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute (GBB) is a research institute and graduate school of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FWN) of the University of Groningen, which functions as a research and graduate school accredited by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and Arts (KNAW). The quality of research of the institute GBB and the research groups has been assessed recently (March 2005) by an international Peer Review Committee; the outcome of this assessment was that our biomolecular research has been rated very good to excellent. The budget of the GBB is about € 12.000.000 p.a. of which over 220 scientists (including 27 staff members) are employed at the Biological Centre and the Chemistry Department. GBB's biomolecular research focuses on proteins, in particular: their structure, function and dynamic behaviour, their role in complex cellular processes such as transport and regulation, and their fundamental properties that are relevant to applications in biotechnology and medicine. Important research lines, where GBB has a renowned international position, include

• structure-function research on membrane proteins,
• mechanisms of protein translocation and assembly of protein complexes and organelles,
• protein-protein interactions in regulatory networks in cells,
• molecular dynamics simulations of lipid membranes and protein/peptide structures
• protein structure determination by X-ray crystallography and NMR.

A major focus at GBB is on the characterization of membrane proteins in pro- and eukaryotic (micro)organisms, continuously developing and implementing new approaches to overcome difficulties in solubilising, stabilising and purifying membrane proteins and larger membrane-associated protein complexes. GBB’s membrane protein research (Prof. Poolman, Prof. Driessen, Prof. Boekema, Prof. van Haastert, Dr. Veenhoff) is firmly embedded in the recently established Netherlands Proteomics Centre (NPC) as one of the 6 major themes defined to be a national research priority in basic sciences; Prof. Poolman coordinates this theme for NPC (http://www.netherlandsproteomicscentre.nl/process.php?researchthemesNPC2).

International collaborations in membrane protein research, i.e. via our participation in EMBN, via several EU-funded projects (e.g. E-MeP, Actinogen, BACELL-projects, Combigtop), and via collaboration with life science companies, further enables our multidisciplinary approach to make progress in studying membrane proteins.

Training of approximately 115 Ph.D. and 15 MSc students is strictly formalised by GBB and the Educational Institutes Biology and Chemistry of the Faculty, respectively. Progress of Ph.D. research is monitored by regular progress meetings in which a small supervision committee (2 staff scientists and the scientific coordinator) evaluate the research and training of Ph.D. students on an annual basis. All MSc students have an individual mentor and separate advisor as well as supervisors during their 2 research projects. Ph.D. training comprises a variety of elements increase competence of our young scientists. Most important are theoretical and practical courses, conference attendance, Master Classes, and soft-skills (presentation skills, writing skills, project management). A topmaster program on Biomolecular Sciences runs since September 2004, for which students are selected on excellence. These MSc students follow a advanced theoretical and practical training program within the theme ‘Structure, function and regulation of membrane proteins’.

http://www.rug.nl/gbb

Centre for Integrative Membrane Biology (CiMB), Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

CiMB is a formal Interdisciplinary Research Centre hosting 21 research groups from the Faculties at Leeds including biological sciences, medicine, chemistry and physics with dedicated technical and secretarial support. There are strong interactions with the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology (ACSMB), which provides numerous joint facilities including fermenters, SPR, ultracentrifugation, X-ray crystallography, solution and solid state NMR, confocal microscopy and cell imaging, electron microscopy, mass spectrometry and allied robotics for high throughput studies. In a £3.8m University programme new laboratories are being built to accommodate all of CiMB in space contiguous for research ranging from electrophysiology to structural biology.

CiMB was founded to carry out international quality research in all aspects of membrane biology and is a focus of not just core staff at Leeds, but also for joint collaborations with the Universities of Aston, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, London (Imperial College), Oxford, Cambridge and Southampton in UK, and Göteborg, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Marseilles, Strasburg and Lucerne in Europe. Led by Profs Henderson, Baldwin and Beech at Leeds and Dr Bill at Aston, CiMB is a world-class centre for research on membranes by consortia funded with over £14m in three collaborative research grants from EU, BBSRC and EPSRC plus numerous individual grants to its PIs from BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC, YCRC, Wellcome Trust and the British Heart Foundation. In addition ACSMB is one of only five BBSRC Structural Biology Centres in the UK.

CiMB has a major programme of structural studies with a variety of X-ray, EM, NMR and allied approaches to important classes of membrane proteins, including human ion channels, vacuolar H +-ATPase complex, transporters from bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, including man, mammalian GPCR receptors, and bacterial receptor and photosystems.

Training of approximately 40 Ph.D. and 10 M.Sc. students is strictly formalised by the Faculty Graduate Research School (GRS), with monthly supervisor’s reports, a yearly examined progress report by mini-thesis, poster and departmental seminar presentation.

In the past three years, the numbers have included many full-time students (e.g. from France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Finland, Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Thailand and Korea in the last two years). All students have an individual mentor and separate advisor as well as supervisor.

Three EU-funded Marie Curie EST programmes in ‘Membrane Biology’, ‘Advanced Genetic Analysis’ and in ‘Biodiversity and Conservation’ are run by senior staff (Prof Meyer, Prof Prof Findlay, Dr Smith) operating within GRS guidelines and 1-6 month visits by European graduate students (e.g. from Sweden, Germany, France in the last 2 years) and 1-2 years visits by Marie Curie Research Fellows are a regular feature to CiMB and ACSMB.

http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/institutes/imsb.htm

The Swiss National Center of Competence in Research “Structural Biology” (NCCR), Institute of Biochemistry University of Zurich, Switzerland

The Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Structural Biology is a network of internationally leading structural biology research groups, all of them located in Switzerland ( www.structuralbiology.unizh.ch). The program started in 2001 as a research instrument of the Swiss Science Foundation.

The research of this network encompasses the fields of recombinant protein technologies, macromolecular structure determination and computational biomolecular sciences applied to key challenges in the two biological research areas of membrane proteins and supramolecular assemblies / molecular interactions. 

The research of this network encompasses the fields of recombinant protein technologies, macromolecular structure determination and computational biomolecular sciences applied to key challenges in the two biological research areas of membrane proteins and supramolecular
assemblies / molecular interactions.
Participating scientists in the area of membrane proteins are Markus Grütter (NCCR Director), Andreas Plückthun, Raimund Dutzler (all University of Zürich), Kaspar Locher, Wilfred van Gunsteren, Nobel laurate Kurt Wüthrich, (all ETH Zürich), Andreas Engel University of Basel), and Fritz Winkler (Paul Scherrer Institute Villigen and ETH Zürich).

Besides the excellence in structural biology research, the network also pursues the development and implementation of training modules in structural biology, it is active in knowledge and technology transfer, contributes to the advancement of women in structural biology, and actively shares its results with the public, the industry and relevant political institutions by adequate PR measures.

http://www.structuralbiology.unizh.ch