ERA CHAIR HOLDER TO ESTABLISH BIOMOLECULAR AND STRUCTURAL MASS SPECTROMETRY FOR THE ANALYSIS OF COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS

MASSTRUCT aims at establishing a world class Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry Research Unit and Facility for Excellence in the Biomedical Sciences Research Centre Alexander Fleming, unique in Greece and Southeast Europe.

MASSTRUCT will attract and maintain a top-class researcher to build an excellent team to advance research in biomolecular mass spectrometry, structural biology and related dicsiplines at the interface between chemistry and biology.

Biomolecular analysis by MS has emerged as a key tool for interrogating the conformational landscapes and interaction networks of proteins and their complexes, thus invaluably improving our understanding of fundamental biological processes, and assisting the development of new drug discovery strategies.

While over the past decade, biomolecular MS has made big strides for characterising complex biological systems often intractable by other methods, it remains underrepresented in Southeast Europe and fully absent in Greece. Consequently, there is an urgent need to establish a top-class BioMS Facility.

Here, we will address this issue and by establishing an emerging technology in a widening country, we will raise and sustain the research profile of a top-ranked host institute in biomedical sciences, foster wider collaborations in Greece and the wider region and leverage competitive funding and industrial partnerships.

This will complement recent and current EU investments in Greece, including other powerful structural approaches such as cryo-Electron Microscopy, NMR spectroscopy, structural and synthetic biology, thus adding significant value to local science, regional economy and the wider society.

Ultimately, MASSTRUCT will contribute to reverting the ""brain drain"" in Greece, as well as providing a platform to promote mobility and research innovation with downstream opportunities to local and regional economies.