We have just received a VLAIO grant for a project focussed on structural analysis of cryo-EM models and their use in lead optimisation (CryoStudio). This work is a joint collaboration with Johnson & Johnson and the group of Erik Lindahl in Sweden.

Explore the state-of-the-art science and tools to enhance our knowledge on protein conformation and structure identifying ligand binding sites with cryo-EM structures of active projects inside Janssen. By combining the internal cryo-EM expertise with external physics based computational expertise, and Janssen medicinal chemistry drug discovery we expect to make significant contributions to selected discovery projects by predicting alternative protein conformations, understanding ligand binding sites, and modes using cryo-EM allowing us to better handle challenging structure based drug design targets. Also, we will develop and apply best practices for Cryo-EM based SBDD understanding current limitations and drive method development to address this.

Many thanks to Laura Perez Benito of Johnson & Johnson for the nice work!