Mission Statement

The Integrated Structural Biology Core (ISBC) is operated by the Center for Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics and is funded by an NIH Phase III COBRE grant, user fees, and the Office of Research and Creative Scholarship.   The goal of the Core is to provide support, expertise, and infrastructure for protein expression, purification, analysis and structure determination.  We conduct recombinant protein expression in bacteria, insect and mammalian cells, and purify proteins from these sources.  The ISBC provides facilities and services for crystallization of macromolecules, measurement of diffraction data using its in-house diffractometer or synchrotron beamlines and structure determination and refinement.   Computational resources of the ISBC are available for X-ray data processing, structure determination, refinement, and visualization.  ISBC staff can undertake or consult on determination, interpretation and visualization of macromolecular structures, and has established a partnership with the Montana State University Cryo-electron microscopy core facility.  The ISBC provides a variety of analytical services including determination of protein-ligand affinity by surface plasmon resonance and Isothermal titration calorimetry, analysis of macromolecular homogeneity and mass by light scattering/index of refraction, and protein stability and ligand binding by thermo-fluorescence.   The ISBC offers access to a variety of instruments to trained users and conducts user-training on a fee-for-access basis as indicated in the ISBC fee schedule. ISBC staff undertake projects, typically protein expression/purification/structure determination, as defined in mutually agreed-upon Statements of Work.  ISBC supports users in preparation of manuscripts and research grant applications relevant to projects involving the ISBC, and deposition of structural data in the Protein Data Bank.

PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE ISBC!

Publications that describe work performed by ISBC staff or using ISBC equipment should acknowledge the ISBC: “The Integrated Structural Biology Core of the Center for Biomolecular and Structural Dynamics is supported by NIGMS grant P30GM140963”.