A membrane protein laboratory for integrative structural biology

We propose a Membrane Protein Laboratory (MPL) as a national resource focused on integrating, developing and harnessing new technologies to drive membrane protein biomedicine and structural biology.

This proposal will build upon 15-years of MPL research excellence, technical developments at Diamond Light Source, and complement the strategic aims of Diamond-II and the Rosalind Franklin Institute.

Integrative in situ outcomes spanning atomic to cellular scales will be central to technologies developed including time-resolved structural biology for drug discovery, single-particle and live-cell imaging.

The MPL experimental platforms located in the Research Complex at Harwell (RCaH) will be vital to these efforts, delivering biomedically important membrane protein samples to drive technological developments, create new access routes for Diamond users and engage experts on the Harwell campus with the wider membrane protein community.

Through an integrative technologies user access programme, we will support challenging, high-impact projects that have exhausted current strategies.

Rapid-access proposals and INSTRUCT-ERIC (European Infrastructure for Integrated Structural Biology) will support MPL facilities access for the wider membrane protein community.

In parallel Diamond and the Franklin will work with the MPL to establish a sustainability plan to enable core MPL activities to be independent of responsive mode funding.