Description

The Bio-molecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory Network (R-LRB) is a distributed Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructures (ICTS) in health sciences field. It is consists of a distributed ICTS network of high-field NMR instrumentation – including three 800 MHz and three 600 MHz spectrometers- placed in differents locations of Spain.

This Spanish network offers coordinated open access mechanisms to improve national competitive in the biomolecular NMR field, through cutting edge NMR instrumentation and know-how.

The R-LRB assists internal and external users from public and private research centers and is open to both the national and the international scientific communities. The R-LRB is currently composed by three nodes:

  • Laboratorio de RMN de Barcelona (RLB), CCiTUB, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona
  • Laboratorio de RMN Manuel Rico (LMB), Instituto de Química Física Rocasolano, CSIC, Madrid
  • Laboratio de RMN de Euskadi, CIC-bioGUNE, Bilbao


    • Activities

    Research activities currently using R-LRB resources mainly involve the following areas:

  • Fast-NMR methods
  • Characterization of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins (IDPs)
  • 3D structural determination of proteins, peptides, nucleics acids and carbohydrates
  • Dynamic studies of biomolecules
  • Biomolecular interactions
  • Interaction studies in drug design
  • Metabolomics
  • In cell NMR
  • Food science and technology




    • Committees

    The internal organization of the distributed NMR ICTS includes:

  • The Steering Committee,
  • The Executive Committee,
  • The Scientific Advisory Board,
  • The External Access Committee,
  • The user’s Committee.

    • The legal representatives of the institutions owning the various nodes (University of Barcelona, CSIC and CICbioGUNE) form the Steering Committee, which oversee the legal and economic aspects of the distributed ICTS.

    The Executive Committee is responsible for the scientific management of the ICTS. It is constituted by the scientific directors and facility managers of the nodes, chaired by the ICTS coordinator, which for the 2017-2020 period is Miquel Pons, the scientific director of the Barcelona node. The executive committee meets, personally or through electronic means, at least twice a year but can be convened by the coordinator at any time following a request by any of its members.

    The Scientific Advisory Board is formed by internationally recognized experts and its role is to advice the Executive and Steering committees on strategic decisions. Is composed by:

  • Harald Schwalbe. Director of the Center for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance. University of Frankfurt. Germany.
  • Ulrich Günther. Institute for Cancer and Genomic Sciences College of Medical and Dental Sciences University of Birmingham. UK.
  • Isabella Felli, Magnetic Resonance Center. University of Florence. Italy.
  • Robert Konrat. Max F Perutz Laboratories. University of Vienna. Austria.
  • Anne Lesage. Institute de Sciences Analytiques. University of Lyon. France.
  • Janez Plavec. Slovenian NMR center.

    • The external Access Committee is in charge of evaluating the suitability of competitive access requested by users. The following Spanish scientists serve in this committee: Juan Luis Asensio, M Angeles Jimenez, Douglas Laurents, Manuel Martín Pastor, Pedro Nieto, Irene Díaz, Javier Cañada, Maria Victoria Gómez, Ramón Campos-Olivas, Francisco Blanco, Xavier Salvatella, María Macias, Ignacio Alfonso, Albert Virgili.

    The user’s committee is formed by representatives of the external users, independent from the facility operators. It interacts with the Executive Committee to forward the needs and suggestions of the user’s community.



    Access

    Which resources are available?

    Researchers can apply for NMR spectrometer time on the available spectrometers of the Spanish Biomolecular NMR network (R-LRB = Red de Laboratorios de Resonancia Magnética Nuclear de Biomoléculas). Each one of the R-LRB nodes -LRB in Barcelona, LMB in Madrid, LRE in Bilbao- provides supervised access, technical support and trainings for users.

    R-LRB resources and expertise can help to speed up significant contributions to rearch areas where NMR high-field instrumentation is an “enabling” technology. R-LRB offers support in the planning, design, performance and interpretation of experimental results.

    Who can apply?

    All the resources are aimed at non-profit R&D purposes. They are open to research groups from academia, and from public or private research centres. Research groups based in other countries can also apply for R-LRB resources.

    How to apply?

    Access to R-LRB resources are regulated by means of competitive calls, which are permanently open. Proposals are evaluated by an External Access Committee, which is advised by a Scientific Advisory Committee, composed of internationally recognized NMR experts.

    To participate in R-LRB calls, you need to create an account in the R-LRB intranet and complete an on-line Acces Application Form. The application procedure and information requested in the Application Form is available in the R-LRB Application Guide.

    Evaluation and selection process

    Each application form is evaluated through the Access Committee, according to the scientific quality and interest of the proposal, the applicant’s CV and the technical feasibility of carrying out the experiments at the R-LRB instrumentation.

    Scientific quality criteria will not be re-evaluated in Access Forms including research projects funded by competitive calls by National or European funding agencies. The information about the national or international grant reference (code) and funding institution should be included in the Access Application Form, in these cases.

    The result of evaluations will be communicated to applicants by a member of the Executive Committee. Time scheduling for positively evaluated proposals will be established by the technical staff in each R-LRB node trying to conciliate the optimum use of NMR spectrometers and user preferences/needs.



    Documents