Löw Awarded Röntgen-Ångström Cluster Grant
CSSB scientist Christian Löw (EMBL) is also part of a project that was awarded a grant from the Röntgen-Ångström Cluster. Together with project leads Henry Chapman (DESY, UHH) and Susanna Törnroth-Horsefield (Lund University), the Löw group will work to further develop a new method for diffractive imaging of macromolecules in disordered crystals. The scientists will use the European XFEL and PETRA III synchrotron radiation facilities in Hamburg as well as MAX IV in Lund, Sweden to explore the possibilities of this new method in determining high-resolution structures of membrane proteins.
High resolution structural data are a key component of/for effective drug design. This vital data are however only available for a small percentage of human membrane proteins because the crystallization of these proteins for structural experiments is not only extremely complex but also exceptionally time consuming. Löw and his collaborators hope that their new method will open new ways for making use of imperfect crystals for structure determination of membrane proteins as well as increasing the accuracy and reliability of the determined structures. “This method has the potential to revolutionize macromolecular crystallography and will have a significant impact on medicine and life science,” explains Löw.
