Workshop "Strategy for future EMBL research infrastructures in the Life Sciences in Hamburg"

29 Mar 2021, 13:00 → 30 Mar 2021, 18:00 Europe/Berlin

Matthias Wilmanns (EMBL Hamburg) , Dmitri Svergun (EMBL Hamburg) , Thomas Schneider (EMBL Hamburg)

EMBL Hamburg has been operating synchrotron beamlines for applications in Structural Biology on the DESY Campus for more than 40 years.

At present, EMBL is operating EMBL@PETRA3, an Integrated Facility for Structural Biology comprising beamlines for Small Angle X-ray Scattering (P12) and Macromolecular Crystallagraphy (P13, P14) including the T-REXX endstation dedicated to time-resolved MX. The Sample Preparation and Characterization Facility is available for getting samples ready for SAXS and/or MX experiments.

The Deutsche Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY, Hamburg) plans to upgrade the present synchrotron storage ring PETRA III into PETRA IV, which will have an unprecedented spectral brightness, reaching the diffraction limit up to X-ray energies of about 10 keV. The Conceptual Design Report has been published in 2019 and can be found here:  CDR. PETRA IV would lead to a great boost in performance for many techniques utilizing X-rays. The transition to PETRA IV is currently planned for 2025-26 and the beamlines portfolio for the new ring is presently being discussed. EMBL is involved in defining the future beamlines for Life Sciences at PETRA IV.

In view of these developments, and to put intended future research service directions of the EMBL Hamburg Unit into the context of the overall research infrastructure portfolio on the DESY campus in Hamburg, EMBL is planning a workshop “Strategy for future EMBL research infrastructures in the Life Sciences in Hamburg”. The workshop will take place in a virtual format on March 29-30, 2021. Its main aim will be to consult with leading experts and stakeholders about the synergistic use of the future X-ray infrastructures with complementary structural and computational methods. It is planned to review possible future needs and strategies for EMBL infrastructures at and around PETRA IV and to discuss how the interests of the research communities worldwide and in particular those in the EMBL member states could be best taken into account.

The workshop will be conducted in close coordination with DESY and will involve other relevant organizations on campus such as the European XFEL and the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB). Capitalizing on the excellent track record of EMBL in developing and providing integrated services for X-ray scattering and diffraction, we plan to expand our portfolio into X-ray imaging and to utilize the unique collaborative opportunities on the DESY campus.

The workshop will be focusing on challenges and opportunities of the transition from PETRA III to PETRA IV also taking into account the needs of the present and potential future user communities. There will be ample time for discussion. Hence there will be only short presentations of 20 minutes each (including discussion).

Confirmed Speakers:

• Edith Heard (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany)

• Helmut Dosch (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany)

• Robert Feidenhans'l (European XFEL, Schenefeld, Germany)

• Savvas Savvides (Ghent University & VIB Center for Inflammation Research, Ghent, Belgium)

• Poul Nissen (University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark)

• Christian Schroer (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany)

• Arwen Pearson (Hamburg Advanced Research Centre for Bioorganic Chemistry, Hamburg, Germany)

• Kristina Djinovic-Carugo (Max Perutz Labs, Vienna, Austria)

• Meytal Landau (Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel))

• Alexandra Pacurenau (Euroepan Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France)

• Andrej Sali (University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA)

• Liz Duke (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg, Germany)

• Bruno Klaholz (Centre for Integrative Biology, IGBMC, Strasbourg, France)

• Gerard Kleywegt (European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom)

• Anton Barty (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany)

• Jan Korbel (European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany)

• Heinrich Haas (BioNTech, Mainz, Germany)

• Gerard Bricogne (GlobalPhasing Ltd., Cambridge, United Kingdom)

• Michael Hennig (LeadXPro, Villigen, Switzerland)

• Jürgen Bauer (EMBLEM, Heidelberg, Germany)

• Hugo van Ingen (University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands)

• Maciej Kozak (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland)

• Federico Forneris (University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy)

• Lari Lehtiö (University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland)

• Annette Langkilde (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark)

• Vladena Bauerová (Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Slovakia)

• Sandra Macedo Ribeiro (Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Porto, Portugal)

Monday, 29 March

13:00 → 13:20 Welcome

Greeting by Organizer

13:00 Welcome

Speaker: Matthias Wilmanns (EMBL Hamburg)

13:20 → 15:00 EMBL as an opportunity: diversity, cooperation, excellence, partnerships

Convener: Matthias Wilmanns (EMBL Hamburg)

13:20 TBA

Speaker: Edith Heard (EMBL)

13:40 DESY future strategy in the Life Sciences

Speaker: Helmut Dosch (DESY)

14:00 TBA

Speaker: Robert Feidenhans'l (European XFEL)

14:20 Turning on the X-ray lights inside cells and tissues

Speaker: Savvas Savvides (Ghent University & VIB Center for Inflammation Research)

14:40 Transporters in motion - how do we go about it?

Speaker: Poul Nissen (University of Aarhus)

15:00 → 15:15 Coffee Break

15:15 → 15:55 Making the case

PETRA IV as a diffraction limited light source and its connection to EMBL infrastructures

Convener: Selina Storm

15:15 PETRA IV: project and science case

Speaker: Christian Schroer (DESY)

15:35 EMBL@PETRA4

Speaker: Thomas Schneider (EMBL Hamburg)

15:55 → 17:15 Expanding on track record

Current possibilities and future opportunities for Macromolecular Crystallography, Small-Angle X-ray Scattering, time-resolved Structural Biology

Convener: Maria Garcia Alai

15:55 The T-REXX endstation at P14: building a community for time-resolved structural biology at synchrotrons and XFELs

Speaker: Arwen Pearson (University of Hamburg)

16:15 Order from disorder in the sarcomeric Z-disc

Speaker: Kristina Djinovic-Carugo (University of Vienna)

16:35 Fighting microbes with functional fibrils

Speaker: Meytal Landau (Technion Haifa)

16:55 Understanding protein fibril formation – from different angles

Speaker: Annette Langkilde (University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen)

17:15 → 18:00 BREAK

18:00 → 18:40 EMBL diversification and new directions: Part I

New technologies for a future infrastructure portefolio of EMBL

Convener: Jan Kosinski

18:00 From integrative structural biology to cell biology

Speaker: Andrej Sali (University of California San Francisco)

18:20 High-resolution cryo-EM and Integrated Structural Biology of Nucleoprotein Complexes

Speaker: Bruno Klaholz (Centre for Integrative Biology, IGBMC, Strasbourg)

18:40 → 19:10 Discussion

Tuesday, 30 March

09:00 → 09:40 EMBL diversification and new directions: Part II

New technologies for a future infrastructure portefolio of EMBL

Convener: Christian Löw

09:00 Hard X-ray bioimaging at the nanoscale

Speaker: Alexandra Pacureanu (ESRF-EBS)

09:20 The Hamburg integrated X-ray imaging facility

Speaker: Liz Duke (EMBL Hamburg)

09:40 → 10:40 The future case for EMBL Member States: Part I

Future opportunities from an EMBL member state perspective

Convener: Plamena Markova

09:40 NMR & SAXS for dynamic protein assemblies

Speaker: Hugo van Ingen (University of Utrecht)

10:00 Flexible protein structures – radiation induced domain swapping and conformational changes

Speaker: Maciej Kozak (University of Poznań)

10:20 Integration of structural methods to investigate bio-medically relevant human protein targets

Speaker: Federico Forneris (University of Pavia)

10:40 → 11:00 Coffee Break

11:00 → 12:00 The future case for EMBL Member States: Part II

Future opportunities from an EMBL member state perspective

Convener: Plamena Markova

11:00 Structural biology and data management developments in Finland

Speaker: Lari Lehtiö (University of Oulu)

11:20 The Development of Structural Biology in Slovakia: Present and Future Perspectives

Speaker: Vladena Bauerová (Institute of Molecular Biology, Slovak Academy of Sciences)

11:40 Structural Biology in Portugal: from MX to CRYOEM and X-ray imaging

Speaker: Sandra Macedo Ribeiro (University of Porto)

12:00 → 13:00 Lunch Break

13:00 → 14:00 Data Infrastructures

F.A.I.R flow of data

Convener: Dmitri Svergun

13:00 Image archiving at EMBL-EBI - EMPIAR and the BioImage Archive

Speaker: Gerard Kleywegt (EMBL-EBI)

13:20 Analysis as a part of the service

Speaker: Anton Barty (DESY)

13:40 EMBL-wide Approach to Data Sciences

Speaker: Jan Korbel (EMBL Heidelberg)

14:00 → 14:40 Technology Development, Transfer, Commercialisation: Part I

Opportunities for use of future infrastructures in an industrial context; development and dissemination of new instrumentation.

Convener: Thomas Schneider

14:00 Creating added value from EMBL research and services in structure biology: showcases & outlook

Speaker: Jürgen Bauer (EMBLEM)

14:20 Pharmaceutical applications of synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering

Speaker: Dmitri Svergun (Bio-SAXS GmbH, EMBL Hamburg)

14:40 → 14:50 Coffee Break

14:50 → 15:50 Technology Development, Transfer, Commercialisation: Part II

Opportunities for use of future infrastructures in an industrial context; development and dissemination of new instrumentation.

Convener: Thomas Schneider

14:50 Synchrotron radiation for advanced characterization of RNA Nanomedicines

Speaker: Heinrich Haas (BioNTech)

15:10 Brief notes from a triple point between Academia, Industry, and Synchrotron Facilities

Speaker: Gerard Bricogne (Global Phasing Ltd.)

15:30 Cryo-EM and X-ray enabled structure based drug discovery on challenging membrane protein targets

Speaker: Michael Hennig (LeadXPro)

15:50 → 16:05 Coffee Break

16:05 → 17:05 Conclusions