Structural Biology

The Structural Biology (SB) Core provides Center laboratories with specialized expertise, advanced equipment, and leading software to support structural investigations. Structural studies play a crucial role in understanding the biological mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis, offering insights into function and mechanism and providing atomic-level details essential for drug discovery.

The Core maintains state-of-the-art equipment, including two Krios cryogenic electron microscopes (cryo-EMs) and extensive computational resources for data collection, processing, and structure determination. These resources include graphical workstations and a high-performance Linux cluster, supporting the analysis of large proteins, complexes, and macromolecular assemblies. To further expand its capacity, the SB Core has access to synchrotron beamlines and cryo-EM facilities.

In addition to providing training and assistance to users, the Core collaborates with non-structural MSK groups on projects involving macromolecular crystallization and structure determination. The Core Head also offers modeling expertise and guidance, enabling labs to use available structural data in experiment design and interpretation.