Pau Bernadó, research associate at the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory at IRB Barcelona publishes an article in the 'News & Views' of the prestigious journal Nature. The paper deals with new structural approaches that allow the interpretation of protein structures in terms of sets of conformations rather than as static images. This view offers a more complete picture of biomolecules allowing to visualize structural changes of proteins, particularly relevant for the proper functioning of these biomolecules. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) are techniques that allow this dynamic interpretation of the structures. In this context, SAXS technique is especially relevant because it allows the study of structural changes of large protein complexes in their natural state and does not require sophisticated sample preparations. This technique, in recent expansion, is performed in specialized synchrotron lines as the one to be accessible in the ALBA synchrotron, opening soon in Barcelona.

• Read the news (pdf)
• Nature