By a GenomeWeb staff reporter

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – A group of international research institutes have joined together to launch an initiative to provide access to resources for structural biology research to scientists across Europe and in Israel.

Organized by the European Union's European Strategy Forum of Research Infrastructures program, the Instruct Integrating Biology, or Instruct, initiative will provide academic and commercial researchers access to equipment and expertise spread across 15 collaborating research centers.

The collaborators launched the Instruct initiative at a signing ceremony on Thursday in Brussels, and agreed to provide access to up to 20 percent of their resources.

Instruct will provide access to a range of technologies including tools for proteomic and labeling mass spectrometry applications, computational biology resources, and technologies and expertise for use in sample production, biophysical characterization, crystallization, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, and others.

"Never before have European biologists had a single point of access to all the technology and expertise they need to further their research. By bringing together the different disciplines, technologies and experts in European biology, Instruct will be helping to make the vision of truly integrated biology a reality for the first time," Instruct Director Dave Stuart said in a statement.

"Instruct will allow laboratories throughout Europe to gain ready access to the most advanced facilities, technologies, and methodologies. Israeli scientists and their European counterparts will now have access to facilities they could only have dreamed of before," added Gideon Schreiber, a professor at the Weizmann Institute and deputy director of Israel's Instruct Core Centre.

The program is based around an online hub that already includes over 500 researchers from 25 countries, and enables them to tailor their online profiles to match their interests and priorities.

Members from institutes in eight countries signed the the agreement joining Instruct on Thursday, including the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK.

Original post:
European Institutes Form Structural Biology Resource