Institute of biostructure and bioimaging (IBB)

Research activities

The research projects developed at the Section Biostructures mainly to the design, synthesis, expression and characterization in solution and solid state of biological molecules from protein peptide systems. In particular, at the Centre we are being the following thematic development: Design of structural basis of new systems with potential applications in advanced imaging and biologies.
Design of the structural basis and characterization of new systems with applications in diagnostic and therapeutic field and of new drugs with diffraction of x-rays, nuclear magnetic resonance, and molecular dynamics techniques. Study of the interactions in complex protein systems / protein, protein / DNA, protein / substrate Synthesis and characterization of structural bases with diffraction techniques x-rays and nuclear magnetic resonance of peptide and peptidomimetic systems in different expression of protein systems
These research themes have been developed using various experimental techniques such as the peptide synthesis in solution and in solid phase, the expression of natural proteins and mutants, the structural characterization using Circular Dichroism, techniques UV, IR, NMR and Crystallography. In parallel, have been applied to theoretical prediction methods and design calculation of new molecules capable of reproducing the activity of a protein, you can find numerous applications in the field of biotechnology, pharmacology, biochemistry and molecular biology.
Also at Section are ongoing research projects for the development of macromolecular complexes consist of various molecular units that, by mutual molecular recognition, self-assemble and are also capable of selectively bind to cellular receptors. These systems should be developed as clinical diagnosis in nuclear medicine and in diagnostic imaging. Finally have to remember to research the regulation of transcription factors also reported in the REPORT CNR focus 2002. The need for protein-DNA interactions for control of gene expression is strongly supported by the discovery that double-stranded DNA can be used to alter the transcription of genes through a decoy approach.