Role and Contribution
IFBL is a Structural Biology Laboratory which has about 20 members, including technicians. At this time, 3 scientists are directly involved in protein crystallography but more positions are going to be filled soon. The remaining people are in charge of molecular biology, biochemistry, enzymology, biophysics and bioinformatics. IFBL is the coordinator of the EC-funded European Structural Biology Forum (ESBF), and participates in a programme on drug resistance in HIV-1 proteinase, which is funded under FP5. IFBL is one of the leading European groups in the field of structural studies on viral proteinases. The institute has an active programme on coronaviruses including SARS and, together with collaborators in China, has published the first crystal structure of a SARS protein. The people involved in the VIZIER project are : R. Hilgenfeld, who is director of the Institute of Biochemistry, University of Luebeck (IFBL). He was leader of the crystallography and drug design group in a major pharmaceutical company before returning to academia in 1995. He has published 81 articles in refereed journals. J. Mesters is a senior scientist, in charge of protein crystallization and structure elucidation. R. Moll, C.L. Schmidt and J. Deiwick are senior scientists, in charge of protein expression, biochemistry and enzymology. K. Anand is a post-doctoral crystallographer working with SARS virus proteins. S. Anemueller is a senior scientist, in charge of bioinformatics and biophysics.
IFBL Luebeck, DE
