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Newsletter 11

CSSB would like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2020! This newsletter takes a look back at the scientific and strategic milestones from 2019 and invites you to join us for upcoming events. We are particularly looking forward to our 3rd International Symposium which will take place from 1-3 December 2020.

CSSB would like to thank all staff and colleagues for their support and collaboration in 2019. We would especially like to thank Prof. Dr. Dietmar Manstein for his dedication and commitment while serving as CSSB Deputy Director from January 2018 - December 2019.

CSSB NEWS

IMAGE: DESY

Prof. Chris Meier's tenure as CSSB Scientific Director extended

CSSB will remain under the scientific directorship of Prof. Dr. Chris Meier from the Department of Chemistry at Universität Hamburg until 2022. During this time, Prof. Meier will be supported by two Deputy Directors; Prof. Dr. Thomas Marlovits (UKE) and Prof. Dr. Kay Grünewald (HPI, UHH)

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IMAGE: Melissa Prass

CSSB SAB Meeting

On 30 September and 1 October 2019, the CSSB Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) met for the seventh time in Hamburg.

IMAGE: Jörg Müller

CSSB Website Relaunch

On 23 September 2019, CSSB launched a new version of its website. The website was designed by Berlin-based design firm Studio Good with images from Hamburg photographer Jörg Müller. The new website is easier to navigate and highlights not only our group leaders but also our multi-user facilities and the Research Hotel. Click the link below to see the new Research Hotel page.

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IMAGE: Melissa Prass

CSSB Seminar Series Launched

We kicked-off this seminar series on 20 June 2019 with our first invited speaker Poul Nissen from Aarhus University. Poul gave a seminar entitled "Structure and dynamics of membrane transporters." On 8 October, Andres Leschziner from UCSD gave a seminar entitled "A structural and mechanistic model for Parkinson's Disease-associated LRRK2 interaction with microtubules." On 5 November, Helen Saibil from Birkbeck, Univeristy of London gave a seminar entitled "Malaria parasites breaking out of red blood cells."

IMAGE: Tina Mavric

Tracking Down Pathogens: A Panel Discussion

To reveal insights into the realm of pathogens, CSSB and the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg hosted a panel discussion with over 100 guests on 24 April 2019 entitled "Tracking Down Pathogens."

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UPCOMING CSSB EVENTS

IMAGE: Melissa Prass

3rd CSSB International Symposium

Save the date for the 3rd CSSB International Symposium which will take place from 1-3 December 2020. The symposium entitled "Charting the landscape of infection: From entry to exit" will focus on a cross-disciplinary interrogation of the molecular mechanism of human infections. Registration information will be available soon.

IMAGE: Jörg Müller

Bioimaging Methods Seminars

The Bioimaging Methods Seminar series aims to become a platform for the exchange of the latest ideas and concepts for the various biological imaging methods available at CSSB, its partners, and the neighbouring institutions CFEL, EuXFEL, and CHyN. Upcoming seminars will take place on 10 February and 24 February from 15:00 - 16:00 in the CSSB lecture hall. Please click the link below to subscribe to the seminar mailing list.

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SCIENTIFIC NEWS

IMAGE: Medical Illustrator: Jennifer Oosthuizen

AhR: A Cellular Secret Agent

In a new paper published in Science, CSSB Scientist Michael Kolbe and his collaborators provide detailed information regarding how a host monitors inter-bacterial communication during infection by Gram negative bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

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IMAGE: Maria Garcia Alai

New Protocol for Screening Membrane Protein Stability

Six research groups, among them three from CSSB, have developed a protocol that will simplify the process of solubilising integral membrane proteins (IMPs), as they reported in Scientific Reports. The development of the protocol is the first result of a collaboration between various research groups using the Protein Characterisation (PC) facility at CSSB.

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IMAGE: Jan Kosinski

A tRNA Modifier at Work

CSSB scientist Jan Kosinski (EMBL Hamburg) in collaboration with researchers from the Müller group at EMBL Heidelberg and scientists from the Małopolska Centre of Biotechnology (MCB) at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany, have now managed to catch a crucial component of cellular modification machinery directly at work. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), they have determined the structures of a large protein complex called Elongator, in the presence and absence of its natural substrate tRNA.

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IMAGE: Moser, Pražk et al. (2019) Cryo-SOFI enabling low-dose super-resolution correlative light and electron cryo-microscopy. PNAS

Cryo-SOFI; a New Super-Resolution cryo-FM Concept

The CSSB research groups of Rainer Kaufmann (UHH) and Kay Grünewald (HPI), together with co-workers from the University of Oxford, have developed a new cryo-FM concept which enables cryo-CLEM imaging that not only preserves the structural integrity of the biological sample but also significantly reduces the resolution gap. This new concept, named cryo-SOFI, has been published in the scientific journal PNAS.

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IMAGE: Christian Loew

First Structure of Peptide Transporter in Complex with Pro-drug Revealed

The groups of CSSB scientists Christian Löw (EMBL) and Jan Kosinski (EMBL) are now a step closer to understanding this as they recently determined a high resolution crystal structure of a peptide transporter in complex with the pharmacological relevant pro-drug valganciclovir; a medication that combats certain viral infections. Their results, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, could assist in the design of pro-drugs with improved absorption rates.

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Contact Information

Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB)
c/o DESY, Building 15
Notkestr. 85
22607 Hamburg
Germany
E-mail: info@cssb-hamburg.de

To find out more about CSSB please visit our website:
www.cssb-hamburg.de
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