Structural Biology & Drug Discovery Services Platform
MAX IV Laboratory in Lund
Accelerating Discovery with Structural Insight!
The success of establishing an advanced platform for structural biology and drug discovery services depends heavily on the methods and technologies developed in recent decades and requires substantial investments in modern instrumentation. But more importantly, it relies on highly qualified staff. SARomics Biostructures has excelled in this area, and completing over 100 projects annually clearly demonstrates the demand for our services.
Our technology platform is equipped to handle all the experimental steps necessary for successful structural biology and structure-based drug discovery work. A thorough characterization of the protein’s state in solution (such as solubility under specific buffer conditions and monodispersity) is vital for X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. Therefore, our experimental work encompasses the biophysical characterization of all protein samples. We rely on synchrotron radiation sources to obtain the best-quality X-ray data. Our primary X-ray data source is the local MAX IV synchrotron in Lund, just a few kilometers from our labs. On average, we collect X-ray data every 2 to 3 weeks.
To assist our clients in planning their work, we provide more detailed experimental information on the following pages. For details of our services, please visit the corresponding pages – X-ray crystallography services, NMR spectroscopy services, and integrated drug discovery services.
- Crystallization and X-ray crystallography
- Protein NMR spectroscopy (BioNMR)
- Drug discovery strategies
Feel free to reach out to us directly to discuss your project.
Designing a drug discovery strategy
SARomics Biostructures started as a company offering structural biology services, but over the years, it has expanded its platform to cover all aspects of structure-based drug design. The team has gained extensive experience in library screening, hit identification, and structure-based lead discovery. Based on our experience, we will discuss the main strategies for structure-based lead discovery and drug design. The choice of strategy depends on the available information, such as the three-dimensional structure of the drug target, known ligand structure (structures), and availability of co-crystal structures of a ligand and target. Also, screening compound libraries and hit identification is crucial for any new lead discovery project.
In collaboration with our partner, Red Glead Discovery, we run an integrated drug discovery platform with our proprietary weak affinity chromatography (WAC™) fragment screening technology. The advantages of the WAC™ method are outlined on our integrated drug discovery services page. The following steps in the process, including fragment expansion and lead generation, are carried out by experienced medicinal chemists at Lead Discovery in close collaboration with our computational chemistry, X-ray crystallography, and protein NMR spectroscopy teams. More information about the choice of strategy and other details of the drug design process can be found on our dedicated page.
Watch the fantastic technology powering the BioMax beamline
In this five-minute video, Dr. Anna Gonzales takes us inside the BioMax experimental hutch to demonstrate how its amazing technology works: robotic crystal mounting and positioning the crystal in the X-ray beam, 460 samples for data collection that can be stored in liquid nitrogen, and brought into the beam as required, and the X-ray detector that allows an entire dataset to be collected within 40 seconds: this and much more. Don’t miss it!