Second time the two week course was organised
September 2nd 2024 was the starting day of the 2024 version of the Integrated structural biology course. The course was again organised to take place at several different places in Sweden to enable many in person visits and connections at research infrastructures important for structural biology research. 17 students from Sweden, Finland, Italy and South Korea and more than 30 teachers and lecturers planned and attended in this course that aims to continue to build the knowledge and network on integrative structural methods in Sweden and beyond.
Organising the integrated structural biology course now for the second time is very rewarding. 2024 we saw the return of teachers from the last course as well as some new additions. Connecting more than 30 scientists through out Sweden within the structural biology community creates bonds that last and foster collaborations between the infrastructures. It is great to work with such highly motivated students and share our knowledge on different techniques with them. /Cecilia Persson
“The ISB course 2024 is not only a scientific course by integrating different advanced characterisation methods but also integrating the students with different cultures and background. It was especially thoughtful with the kind organisations between four different cities including lectures and practical exercises. I hope the ISB will go on with the brilliant knowledge and networking”. / ISB 2024 student testimony
Stockholm days included: The students also got to visit and have lectures and crystal fishing practicals at Karolinska Institutet Protein Science Core Facility (PSF). Lectures in SciLifeLab Campus Solna on Crystallography by Esko Oksanen and Cryo-EM by Marta Carroni, with site visits to the Cryo-EM unit. In addition computational aspects of structural biology was presented by Erik Lindahl and scientific presentations were made from Marta Bonasconi, John Cowgill and Darko Mitrovic. Esmeralda Westerner also presented the work performed at the SciLifeLab Drug discovery and development platform.
Every student brought a poster describing their current work and challenges and two poster-mingle sessions was organised to spur networking and scientific discussions.
The course had many practical sessions, from hands on Chrystal fishing to different data analysis assignments. Here a student is working on Cryo-EM data with the suppor from teachers Tim Schulte and Piotr Draczkowski.
Students from the 2022 ISB course came to network and to present their current work and scientific endeavoured for the students.
Linköping: In Linköping Maria Sunnerhagen and Dean Derbyshire took over and provided lectures on Biophysical characterisation and site visit at the ProLinC facility.
Lund: The Lund week started at the Swedish synchrotron facility MAX IV, with lectures on Small Angle Scattering by Hanna Barriga and introduction to modelling and SasView with Wojtek Potrzebowski and a site visit to MAX IV with introduction by Marjolein Thunnissen. Furthermore Tobias kroner gave lectures on Crystal-based fragment screening and Ann THerry talked about methods that can be used at the CoSAXS beamline. Lars Nilsson gave a Cat study session on xxxx.
At the European Spallation Course (ESS) the course had lunch and got a site-visit on the impressive construction site as well as a lecture on Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) capabilities for life science.
At the SciLifeLab Lund at BMC lectures and practicals on H/D exchange Mass spectrometry and cross-linking mass spectrometry were held by Simon Ekström and Lotta Happonen from the Structural Proteomics unit.
Simon Ekström introducing himself and the Structural Proteomics session held at SciLifeLab Lund and BMC building.
Gothenburg: Final days were spent at SciLifeLab Gothenburg, and the Swedish NMR center for lectures on NMR by Cecilia Persson and Dynamics in NMR by Tobias Sparrman and Jonna Mattson (previous ISB student). Fragment based NMR screens (FBS) was taught by Mattis Hedenström and a case example was described by Ulrika Brath. Final day was spent on Lectures and practicals on AlphaFold by Claudio Mirabello.
