Bijvoet Center
for Biomolecular Research
Summary Report 2016-2017
“Discovering the Molecular Basis of Life”
Contact Details
Postal address
Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research Padualaan 8
Utrecht University
Padualaan 8 (room O604) 3584 CH Utrecht
The Netherlands
Contact details Dr. Reinout Raijmakers Managing Director
Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research Tel.: +31 30 253 6804
E-mail: R.Raijmakers@uu.nl Science.Bijvoet@uu.nl
Website Bijvoet Center www.bijvoet-center.eu
Website PhD programme MLS www.bijvoet-center.eu/phd-programme/
Executive Board
Prof. dr. M. Baldus (Scientific Director) Prof. dr. A.M.J.J. Bonvin
Prof. dr. A.J.R. Heck Prof. dr. P. Gros Dr. S. Rüdiger Prof. dr. A. Killian Prof. dr. G.J. Boons
Dr. R. Raijmakers (Managing Director)
Scientific Advisory Board
Prof.dr. J.F.G. Vliegenthart (chairman) Emeritus of Utrecht University, NL Prof.dr. A. Bax
NIH, Bethesda, USA Prof.dr. J. Johnson,
The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA Prof.dr. K. Wilson
University of York, UK
Visiting addresses Kruytgebouw Padualaan 8 3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands
Bloembergengebouw Enter via Kruytgebouw Padualaan 8
3584 CH Utrecht The Netherlands
David de Wiedgebouw Universiteitsweg 99
3484 CG Utrecht The Netherlands
Stratenum
Universiteitsweg 100 3584 CG Utrecht The Netherlands
Colofon
Design by Reinout Raijmakers, photography by Ivar Pel, Bas van Breukelen, Reinout Raijmakers, and others.
Research groups
The Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research comprises several research groups, most of which are part of the Sciency Faculty of Utrecht Univer- sity, (UU) and some are part of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU).
Biomolecular Mass
Spectrometry & Proteomics The Biomolecular Mass Spectrom- etry and Proteomics (BMS) group de- velops mass spectrometry based ena- bling technologies for the structural and functional analysis and character- ization of proteins and proteomes and applies them to significant research questions, to obtain biological rele- vant information. The group consists of about 50 people and is headed by Albert Heck and is embedded in both the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The group further consists of the principal in- vestiagors Maarten Altelaar, Richard Scheltema and Wei Wu (all Pharma- ceutical Sciences), Celia Berkers and Simone Lemeer (both Chemistry), as well as dedicated educational staff.
Crystal and Structural Chemistry
The Crystal and Structural Chemis- try (CSC) group performs research into the three-dimensional structures of molecules, which define the mo- lecular interactions and reactions that underlie complex chemical and bio- logical processes. The main research lines are in the field of protein crys- tallography, chemical crystallogra- phy and the development of crystal- lographic methods. The Crystal and Structural Chemistry group consists of five principle investigators: Piet Gros, Eric Huizinga, Loes Kroon- Batenburg, Bert Janssen and Martin Lutz, who also is head of National Single Crystal Facility.
Chemical Biology & Drug Dis- covery
The Chemical Biology & Drug Dis- covery (CBDD, formerly Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology) group focuses on design, chemo- or biosyn- thesis of compounds with biological or medicinal applications and inter- action with their receptors to obtain new bio-active compounds and new approaches for the treatment of dis- eases. Especially modified peptides and peptidomimetics as well as carbo- hydrates are synthesized and studied.
The group is headed by Geert-Jan Boons joined Utrecht University.
The group further consists of Ro- land Pieters, Nathaniel Martin, Tom Wennekes, Robert de Vries and Seino Jongkees. The group is embedded in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics
The research in the Membrane Bio- chemistry and Biophysics (MBB) group is focused on understanding the structure and function of biologi- cal membranes on a molecular level by studying the interactions between its main constituents: lipids and pro- teins. In addition they investigate how membranes are involved in the mode of action of drugs, toxins, antibiotics and amyloid forming proteins. Prin- cipal investigators in this group are Antoinette Killian, Toon de Kroon and Eefjan Breukink.
Cellular Protein Chemistry
The research in Cellular Protein Chemistry (CPC) aims to character- ize in molecular detail mechanisms of protein folding and chaperone ac- tion in mammalian cells, organelle biogenesis and maintenance, and chaperone-substrate interactions.
Permanent scientific staff consists of Ineke Braakman, Stefan Rüdiger and Peter van der Sluijs and also in- cludes Bertrand Kleizen. who is also the coordinator of the MCLS master programme.
NMR Spectroscopy
The research of the NMR spectros- copy group aims at gaining atomic- level insight into biological processes.
Solution and solid-state NMR spec- troscopy are combined with molecular biology and computational structural biology methods to study processes involved in gene regulation, DNA re- pair, cellular signaling, biogenesis and membrane protein complexes. The group is headed by Marc Baldus and further includes Alexandre Bonvin, Gert Folkers, Rolf Boelens, Hugo van Ingen (since 2017) and Markus Wein- garth as principal investigators.
Cryo-electron microscopy The Cryo-EM research group focuss- es on studying biological systems on different scales – from ‘cells to atoms’
– with novel imaging and preparation methods. The aim is to develop and improve a workflow that integrates/
combines different methodologies for in situ structural biology. The group is headed by Friedrich Förster and further includes principal inves- tigators Tzviya Zeev Ben Mordehai (since early 2017), Wally Müller and Willie Geerts.
Timmers group
Up until 2017, the research group of Marc Timmers, focusing on the inter- play between chromatin modifications and basal transcription factors like TFIID, was part of the Bijvoet Cent- er. In 2017, Marc Timmers moved his research group to the University of Freiburg in Germany.
Associate Members
Several other excellent researchers at UU and the UMCU are Associ- ate Members of the Bijvoet Center.
The current Associate Members of the center are Madelon Maurice (UMCU, Cell Biology), Holger Re- hmann (UMCU, Molecular Cancer Research), Anna Akhmanov (UU, Cell Biology) and Casper Hoogenraad (UU, Cell Biology).
The Bijvoet Center is home to several infrastructures, supporting both the research in the center as well as that of many researchers of the S4L ini- tative and on the Utrecht campus as well as throughout the Netherlands and Europe.
Crystallography
The National Single Crystal X-ray Facility at the Bijvoet Center offers crystal structure determinations to synthetic chemists at universities, institutes and companies in the Neth- erlands. With experienced staff, state- of-the-art equipment and advanced software it can deal with a large vari- ation of chemical compounds and in case of academic collaborations the facility contributes also to the prepa- ration of the scientific publications.
The facility houses two modern dif- fractometers, a Bruker Kappa Apex II which is suitable for measurements at low temperature and which is rou- tinely used for all kinds of organic and organometallic crystals and a Bruker Proteum that is especially suited for protein crystallography and for small and weakly diffracting crystals in chemical crystallography.
NMR Spectroscopy
Since more than 2 decades, the Utre- cht NMR group located in the dedi- cated Nicolaas Bloembergen building provides access to high-end NMR equipment to local (UU and UMCU), national and international users. The UU NMR group has been studying biomacromolecules to understand the molecular basis of cellular processes and their failures in the context of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases or antibiotic resistance. Thegroup also develops innovative NMR (Baldus, van Ingen, Weingarth) and compu- tational (Bonvin) methods providing novel opportunities to study molecu- lar systems in situ and in a functional environment. Such studies are con- ducted in collaboration with Bijvoet groups as well as with external part- ners in the fields of pharmacy, (bio)
(uNMR-NL) and EU (iNEXT) ac- cess programs. In phase 1 of the uN- MR-NL roadmap project, a 950 MHz system was installed in 2015.
Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics The Biomolecular Mass Spectrom- etry and Proteomics Group forms the core of the Netherlands Proteomics Centre (NPC), a strategic collabora- tion of proteomics research groups throughout the Netherlands. At Utre- cht University, access is provided for large scale proteomics experiments as well as native MS for structural analysis of proteins and protein com- plexes. Access is provided to 20 state- of-the-art high resolution mass spec- trometers. Access to the facilities for scientists from the European Union was provided in the context of the FP7 funded project PRIME-XS un- til early 2015. Since 2014, the NPC provides access to Dutch and interna- tional researchers through the NWO Roadmap project Proteins@Work.
Electron Microscopy
Early 2016, the Bijvoet Center estab- lished, together with the Debye Insti- tute for Nanomaterials and the Fac- ulty of Geosciences, a new facility for electron microscopy, called the EM Square at Utrecht University.
The facility is devoted to the devel- opment and application of electron microscopy methodologies for life
range of specimen preparation, elec- tron microscopy data collection and analysis, and 3D reconstruction tech- niques. The infrastructure includes several advanced Transmission Elec- tron Microscopes (TEM) and Scan- ning Electron Microscopes (SEM), including state-of-the-art equipment for cryo-electron tomography and single particle analysis.
Instruct
Instruct is the pan-European research infrastructure in structural biology, making high-end technologies and methods available to users. Since May 2013, the Bijvoet Center, together with the electron microscopy facility NeCEN in Leiden and the Protein Facility of the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam form the In- struct-NL Center within Instruct.
On July 4, 2017, the European Com- mission adopted the decision to grant Instruct the official ERIC status. The new legal status for Instruct trans- forms it into a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), joining (at that time) 16 others across Europe. As the second UK-hosted ERIC, Instruct will provide the Eu- ropean structural biology community with continued access to high-quality, stable and sustainable services.
With the establishment of the In- struct ERIC, the Dutch national funding body NWO has committed
Infrastructures
The EM Square Facility at Utrecht University, a collaborative initiative between the Facu- lyt of Science, the Faculyt of Geoscience and the University Medical Centre Utrecht.
Scientific Output
The scientists in the Bijvoet Center published 184 papers in 2016 and 203 papers in 2017, which is well in line with the output over the past years. The figure to the right shows the number of publications of core Bijvoet Center groups, as well as the associated members, over the past years.
Impact of publications
The average impact factor of the journals in which the groups pub- lished was 6.4 over 2016 and 7.8 over 2017, based on the Thompson JCR 2016 index. In total, 82 articles were published in journals with an impact greater than 10 of which 15 in jour- nals with an impact over 20 (see next
page). Output per group
The distribution of these publi- cations over the various research groups, over the past years, is shown in the figure to the left. Please note that publications between multiple research groups in the center are counted towards the total of both groups (BMS: Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics; CSC:
Chemical and Structural Crystallogra- phy; CPC: Cellular Protein Chemistry;
CBDD: Chemical Biology & Drug Dis- covery; NMR: NMR spectroscopy; MBB:
Membrane Biochemistry & Biophysics;
Associated: Associate Members).
The average impact factor of the journals in which all research groups have published in the past years is shown to the left.
Collaboration
There have been 44 joint publica- tions between groups in the Bijvoet Center in 2016 and 2017, and these have involved almost all groups in the center in varying combinations.
Of those, 4 publications involved 3 or more groups (listed on next page).
Journals
The journals in which most often was published were Nature Commu- nications (17x), Angewandte Chemie (10x), PLOS One (10x) and JACS (9x).
MC
NMR
CPC
CSC
MBB Other BMS
0 50 100 150 200 250
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Number of publications
Core groups only Core & associated Associated groups only
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
BMS CSC CPC CBDD MBB NMR Cryo-EM Associated
Number of publications per group
2014 2015 2016 2017
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 16.0 18.0 20.0
BMS CSC CPC CBDD MBB NMR Cryo-EM Associated
Average Impact Factor per group
2014 2015 2016 2017
Scientific Output
Top publications 2016-2017 (Impact Factor > 20)
Martinez-Saez, N; Peregrina, JM; Cor- zana, F (2017) “Principles of mucin structure: implications for the rational design of cancer vaccines derived from MUC1-glycopeptides” Chem. Soc. Rev.
46:7154-7175
Rosenzweig, ESF; Xu, B; Cuellar, LK;
Martinez-Sanchez, A; Schaffer, M;
Strauss, M; Cartwright, HN; Ronceray, P; Plitzko, JM; Forster, F; Wingreen, NS; Engel, BD; Mackinder, LCM; Joni- kas, MC (2017) “The Eukaryotic CO2- Concentrating Organelle Is Liquid-like and Exhibits Dynamic Reorganization”
Cell 171:148
Mezzadra, R; Sun, C; Jae, LT; Gomez- Eerland, R; de Vries, E; Wu, W; Logten- berg, MEW; Slagter, M; Rozeman, EA;
Hofland, I; Broeks, A; Horlings, HM;
Wessels, LFA; Blank, CU; Xiao, YL;
Heck, AJR; Borst, J; Brummelkamp, TR; Schumacher, TNM (2017) “Identifi- cation of CMTM6 and CMTM4 as PD- L1 protein regulators” Nature 549:106 Karaca, E; Rodrigues, JPGLM; Grazia- dei, A; Bonvin, AMJJ; Carlomagno, T (2017) “M3: an integrative framework for structure determination of molecu- lar machines” Nat. Methods 14:897 Wilhelm, M; Hahne, H; Savitski, M;
Marx, H; Lemeer, S; Bantscheff, M;
Kuster, B (2017) “Wilhelm et al. reply”
Nature 547:E23-E23
Brockmann, M; Blomen, VA; Nieu- wenhuis, J; Stickel, E; Raaben, M; Blei- jerveld, OB; Altelaar, AFM; Jae, LT;
Brummelkamp, TR (2017) “Genetic wir- ing maps of single-cell protein states re- veal an off-switch for GPCR signalling”
Nature 546:307
Jiang, K; Rezabkova, L; Hua, SS; Liu, QY; Capitani, G; Altelaar, AFM; Heck, AJR; Kammerer, RA; Steinmetz, MO;
Akhmanova, A (2017) “Microtubule minus-end regulation at spindle poles by an ASPM-katanin complex” Nat. Cell Biol. 19:480
Snijder, J; Schuller, JM; Wiegard, A;
Lossl, P; Schmelling, N; Axmann, IM;
Plitzko, JM; Forster, F; Heck, AJR (2017) “Structures of the cyanobacterial circadian oscillator frozen in a fully as- sembled state” Science 355:1181-1184 van de Waterbeemd, MV; Fort, KL;
Boll, D; Reinhardt-Szyba, M; Routh, A;
Makarov, A; Heck, AJR (2017) “High- fidelity mass analysis unveils heteroge- neity in intact ribosomal particles” Nat.
Methods 14:283
Harterink, M; da Silva, ME; Will, L;
Turan, J; Ibrahim, A; Lang, AE; van Bat- tum, EY; Pasterkamp, RJ; Kapitein, LC;
Kudryashov, D; Barres, BA; Hoogen- raad, CC; Zuchero, JB (2017) “DeActs:
genetically encoded tools for perturbing the actin cytoskeleton in single cells”
Nat. Methods 14:479
Akhmanova, A; Maiato, H (2017) “Clos- ing the tubulin detyrosination cycle”
Science 358:1381-1382
Kaplan, M; Narasimhan, S; de Heus, C; Mance, D; van Doorn, S; Houben, K; Popov-Celeketic, D; Damman, R;
Katrukha, EA; Jain, P; Geerts, WJC;
Heck, AJR; Folkers, GE; Kapitein, LC; Lemeer, S; Henegouwen, PMPVE;
Baldus, M (2016) “EGFR Dynamics Change during Activation in Native Membranes as Revealed by NMR” Cell 167:1241
Liepe, J; Marino, F; Sidney, J; Jeko, A;
Bunting, DE; Sette, A; Kloetzel, PM;
Stumpf, MPH; Heck, AJR; Mishto, M (2016) “A large fraction of HLA class I ligands are proteasome-generated spliced peptides” Science 354:354-358 Guesdon, A; Bazilel, F; Buey, RM; Mo- han, R; Monier, S; Garcia, RR; Angevin, M; Heichette, C; Wieneke, R; Tampe, R; Duchesne, L; Akhmanova, A; Stein- metz, MO; Chretien, D (2016) “EB1 interacts with outwardly curved and straight regions of the microtubule lat- tice” Nat. Cell Biol. 18:1102-1108 Farin, HF; Jordens, I; Mosa, MH; Ba- sak, O; Korving, J; Tauriello, DVF; de Punder, K; Angers, S; Peters, PJ; Mau- rice, MM; Clevers, H (2016) “Visualiza- tion of a short-range Wnt gradient in the intestinal stem-cell niche” Nature 530:340
Top collaborations 2016-2017 (# Bijvoet groups >= 3) BMS, Cryo-EM & NMR:
Kaplan, M; Narasimhan, S; de Heus, C; Mance, D; van Doorn, S; Houben, K; Popov-Celeketic, D; Damman, R;
Katrukha, EA; Jain, P; Geerts, WJC;
Heck, AJR; Folkers, GE; Kapitein, LC; Lemeer, S; Henegouwen, PMPVE;
Baldus, M (2016) “EGFR Dynamics Change during Activation in Native Membranes as Revealed by NMR” Cell 167:1241
CSC, CBDD & MBB:
van’t Veer, IL; Leloup, NOL; Egan, AJF;
Janssen, BJC; Martin, NI; Vollmer, W; Breukink, E (2016) “Site-Specific Immobilization of the Peptidoglycan Synthase PBP1B on a Surface Plasmon Resonance Chip Surface” ChemBioChem 17:2250-2256
BMS, NMR & MBB:
Liu, Y; Rodrigues, JPGLM; Bonvin, AMJJ; Zaal, EA; Berkers, CR; Heger, M; Gawarecka, K; Swiezewska, E; Breu- kink, E; Egmond, MR (2016) “New Insight into the Catalytic Mechanism of Bacterial MraY from Enzyme Kinet- ics and Docking Studies” J. Biol. Chem.
BMS, NMR, CPC & Associated:
Anvarian, Z; Nojima, H; van Kappel, EC;
Madl, T; Spit, M; Viertler, M; Jordens, I;
Low, TY; van Scherpenzeel, RC; Kuper, I; Richter, K; Heck, AJR; Boelens, R;
Vincent, JP; Rudiger, SGD; Maurice, MM (2016) “Axin cancer mutants form nanoaggregates to rewire the Wnt sign- aling network” Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol.
23:324-332
Grants and Awards
The scientists in the Bijvoet Center have been very successful in acquir- ing funding in 2016 and 2017. In both years, the amount of funding acquired for research from funding agencies and companies was around 10 M€. Below are some of the most notable grants and awards in this pe- riod and the beginning of 2018.
Personal Grants NWO
In 2016, NWO Veni grants (250 k€
each) were awarded to Dimphna Mei- jer (CSC goup) and Shenqi Xiang (NMR group). In 2017, an NWO Rubicon fellowship (~100 k€) was awarded to Mohammed Kaplan of the NMR group.
In 2017, Friedrich Förster (Cryo- EM) received a prestigious NWO Vici grant (1500 k€) for his project ‘Mo- lecular structure of mitochondria studied using cryoelectron tomography‘.
Tzviya Zeev Ben Mordehai, also of the Cryo-EM group, received an NWO START-UP grant (600 k€) for her project ‘In-situ visualisation of dy- namic protein complexes in sperms head membranes‘.
Personal Grants ERC
In 2016, both Friedrich Förster (Cryo-EM) and Nathaniel Martin (CBDD) were awarded an ERC Con- solidator Grant (2000 k€ each).
Early 2018, Piet Gros (CSC group) was awarded his second ERC Ad- vanced Grant (2500 k€), for the pro- ject ‘Complement: to clear or not to clear.‘
Other grants
Toon de Kroon (MBB group) received an NWO ECHO grant (260 k€) for his project ‘How does yeast rewire lipid me- tabolism to make the essential membrane lipid phosphatidylcholine redundant?‘
No less than five grants were award- ed to the Bijvoet Center researchers in 2017 from the NWO programme to stimulate collaboration with indus- try. Two NWO LIFT grants (300 k€
group), to collaborate with the phar- maceutical company Galapagos. An- other NWO LIFT grant was awarded to Bertrand Kleizen (also CPC group) to work with the drug development company ProQR. An NWO LIFT grant was also awarded to Geert-Jan Boons (CBDD) to collaborate with FrieslandCampina. Finally, an NWO TA grant (1500 k€) was awarded to Albert Heck (BMS group) to col- laborate with the Leiden University Medical Centre and the companies FrieslandCampina, DMS and Roche.
NWO Roadmap
In April 2018, the new investments of the Dutch government in research infrastructures, the NWO Roadmap, were announced. Among the award- ed projects were two projects with a significant importance for the Bijvoet Center.
A total of 17M€ was awarded to the project NEMI, the Netherlands Elec- tron Microscopy Initiative, coordinat- ed by prof. dr. Judith Klumperman of the UMCU. NEMI is a national EM initiative that includes investments throughout the Netherlands. Of par- ticular importance for the Bijvoet Center are the investments in the national Cryo-EM facility NeCEN in Leiden, which will make the access to that facility much more affordable.
Also 17M€ was awarded to the pro- ject X-omics, coordinated by the Rad- boud University Nijmegen, which will support genomics, proteomcs and metabolomics research through- out the Netherlands and which in- cludes more than 3M for proteomics research in the BMS group.
Awards & honours
In July 2016, Ineke Braakman was appointed chair of the domain Exact and Natural Science and member of the Governing Board of the Nether- lands Organisation for Scientific Re- search (NWO).
In June 2017, Albert Heck was award- ed the Spinoza Prize from NWO, which is the highest academic award in the Netherlands. The prize consists of 2.5M€, and the laureates are fully free to choose the research they wish to spend this money on.
In September 2017, it was announced that Piet Gros was awarded both the European Complement Network’s ECN Medal as well as the very pres- tigious Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography of the Royal Swed- ish Academy of Sciences
In December 2017, Bijvoet SAB mem- ber Hans Vliegenthart was chosen as a Fellow of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Albert Heck (middle) received the NWO Spinoza Prize 2017 from state secretary Sander Dekker (right). The other 2017 laureates were Alexander van Oudenaarden (left, Hubre-
Bijvoet School
The Bijvoet School provides educa- tion in the Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences master student programme and the PhD student programme Molecular Life Science, part of the Graduate School of Life Sciences of Utrecht University
Seminars
The Bijvoet School organizes regu- lar seminars where external scien- tists present their research to the students, postdocs and staff of the center. These people were invited for Bijvoet Seminars in 2016 and 2017:
Teresa Carlomagno (10 Mar, 2016) Philipp Selenko (24 Mar, 2016) Manuel Etzkorn (12 Apr, 2016) Björn Burmann (12 Apr, 2016) Hugo van Ingen (22 Apr, 2016) Jana Broecker (22 Apr, 2016) Ming-Daw Tsai (26 Sep, 2017) Frans Mulder (19 Oct, 2017) Modesto Orozco (31 Oct, 2017) Radu Aricescu (9 Nov, 2017) Tutorial Symposium
The annual Bijvoet tutorial sympo- sia are dedicated to many aspects of the structure, function and interac- tion of biomolecules. In 2016 it was a two day meeting and in 2017 it was a one day meeting in the theme of collaboration between academia and industry. The meetings included the following keynote speakers:
2016
Hagan Bayley (Univ. of Oxford) Melinda Duer (Univ. of Cambridge) Friedrich Förster (MPI/UU) Malte Drescher (Univ. of Konstanz) Daan van Aalten (Univ. of Dundee) 2017
Gregg Siegal (ZoBio, Leiden) Linda Kaldenberg (Merus, Utrecht) Adriana Carvalho de Souza (DSM Biotechnology, Delft)
Maria van Dongen (Janssen: Phar- maceutical Companies of Johnson &
Johnson)
Each year a PhD student is selected as PhD student of the year by the Sci- entific Advisory Board. This student is given the opportunity to present their research at the Bijvoet Sympo- sium. These students were given the honour in the past two years:
2016
Gydo van Zundert (Computational Structural Biology)
2017
Deni Mance (NMR Spectroscopy) Bachelor student programme The “Molecular Life Science” bach- elor programme is a joint educa- tional programme organized by the Bijvoet Center with colleagues from the Departments Biology and Phar- maceutical Sciences. The programme attracts around 45 students per year.
Master student programme The master student programme Mo- lecular and Cellular Life Sciences, in which the Bijvoet School participates, focuses on understanding molecular- level cellular function and rests at the crossroads of chemical, biological, physical and computational science.
The programme attracts around 80 students per year.
PhD student programme
The Molecular Life Science pro- gramme, provided by the Bijvoet School, part of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, aims to provide PhD students with a solid and broad knowledge of structural biochemistry. The PhD students are given an introductory afternoon to get to know the center. They are expected to attend the Bijvoet Tu- torial Symposium and the Bijvoet Seminars, present their research to each other at regular “PhD student evenings” and are offered a variety of courses.
Courses
The programme provides training
ology available in the Bijvoet Center:
X-ray diffraction, mass spectrometry, proteomics, solid-state and liquid- state NMR, protein folding, mem- brane enzymology and lipidomics.
The following courses are all organ- ized on a regular basis and are open to all PhD students in the Graduate School of Life Sciences.
- Advanced NMR Spectroscopy - Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry - Advanced Protein Crystallography In addition to these courses, many other courses organized by different programmes in the Graduate School of Life Sciences are open to the PhD students in the programme.
PhD students
The groups of the Bijvoet Center currently have around 100 active PhD students, with around 55 of them enrolled in the Molecular Life Science programme of the Bijvoet School.
After graduation, around 75% of the PhD students of the Bijvoet School continue their career in academia and approximately half of all graduated PhD students find their next job out- side of the Netherlands, with most of them going to either other European countries or to Northen America.
Summerschool
Since 2010, the Bijvoet School also organizes, together with The Utre- cht Summer School, a summerschool called “Exploring Nature’s Molecu- lar Machines” on the chemical princi- ples underlying protein structure and function and how proteins form an assembly of “molecular machines”.
The target audience of the summer- school are advanced bachelor stu- dents or beginning master students in the early stage of their study with a background in chemistry, molecu- lar biology or biophysics.
