iNEXT-Discovery includes partners from institutions outside of the facility providers that also collaborate on planned joint research projects. Prof. Dr. Anastassis Perrakis from the Division of Biochemistry at the NKI and Oncode Institute explains: "Together with regional experts, specifically from the Baltic and Balkan countries, and with five ESFRI communities in the fields of health, biotechnology, and food, we are offering cutting-edge technologies and novel experimental possibilities to all European scientists, enabling experiments that would be impossible without our facilities." Integration will be further enabled through the extensive and inclusive training program that the iNEXT-Discovery has developed, and that will be deployed in the coming four years.
The NKI makes the Protein Facility, and specifically all instrumentation for the characterisation of macromolecular interactions, available. "At the Protein Facility, we have a collection of biophysical instruments and unique expertise, that allows us to approach different problems with different methodologies", says Anastassis Perrakis. "Similar to iNEXT, we expect to welcome twenty user groups from all over Europe, and share our instruments and experience, contributing to exciting new science."
Access to all facilities will be available through an open peer review system that is based on scientific excellence and the potential of each project for enabling translational research. While iNEXT-Discovery expects Open Access publication from all users, it also enables researchers from industry to access its facilities as a fee-for-service, through a dedicated access portal. Starting from the 1st of February 2020, iNEXT-Discovery will be open for applications.
Structural biology is of paramount importance for basic research in biochemistry, biomedicine and biotechnology, and key for fundamental innovations in health, environment and green economy. Structural biology unravels the 3D-structures of biological macromolecules, helping scientists to understand their roles within the intricate machinery of life, design new macromolecules with better properties for industry or for health, or develop small molecules that interfere with function and can be developed as the drugs of tomorrow. In the past and the present, Europe remains in a leading position in this research area.
