MOSBRI Newsletter 10 – June 2025
4th MOSBRI Scientific Conference at Institut Pasteur, Paris.
The 4th MOSBRI scientific conference, held at the Institut Pasteur in Paris from the 10th to 13th of June 2025, attracted over 230 registered participants. The event, supported by the Association of Resources for Biophysical Research in Europe (ARBRE) and the French Biophysical Society featured 6 scientific sessions:
- Macromolecular assembly architecture, energetics and dynamics.
- Macromolecular engineering and structure/function studies.
- Artificial intelligence, computational approaches and data analysis.
- Molecular biophysics in vivo/in situ and in biomimetic environments.
- Molecular biophysics to address societal challenges
- Single molecule/single particle biophysics.
Oral presentations were made by MOSBRI consortium members, European researchers and students, and industry representatives, alongside 64 posters and 15 company sponsors showcasing advances in biophysical instrumentation. The conference enabled fruitful international scientific networking and highlighted recent developments in atom to cell-scale biophysics.
Prizes were awarded by ARBRE to the best oral and poster presentation, and networking opportunities were enhanced by three poster sessions, a welcome cocktail and a conference dinner on a restaurant boat on the river Seine. The conference emphasized the importance of an integrated approach in modern biophysics, addressing a wide diversity of life science research questions and encouraging participation from early career scientists. This event continued the legacy of previous yearly MOSBRI conferences held in Paris, Zaragoza and Ljubljana.
Special Issue of the European Biophysics Journal dedicated to MOSBRI
The European Biophysics Journal editorial office will publish in the autumn of 2025 a Special Issue dedicated to MOSBRI ’s outcomes, which will be one of the important legacies of this 4-year research infrastructure project.
This issue welcomes:
- results originating from Trans-National Access visits
- work presented at MOSBRI conferences
- results of Joint Research Activities
- guidelines and SOPs resulting from consensus meetings and outcomes of benchmarking studies
- any other work involving MOSBRI team members or people having attended MOSBRI events (conferences, courses, …)
For further information, submission instructions and guidelines for authors visit the website:
https://www.mosbri.eu/news-and-output/ebj-mosbri-special-issue/
The deadline for submission is the 30th of September 2025.
ALS2: Biophysical methods for the real-time characterization of biomolecular interactions
From 31st March to 4th April 2025, the Institut Pasteur in Paris hosted the MOSBRI Advanced Level School focused on real-time monitoring of binding kinetics. This intensive theoretical and practical training brought together 20 trainees from 10 countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the USA), offering a deep dive into the measurement and interpretation of molecular interaction kinetics.
The course emphasized hands-on learning with cutting-edge biophysical techniques used to determine association (kon) and dissociation (koff) rates in a variety of biological and biomedical contexts. Participants explored the diversity of experimental systems available today, gaining first-hand experience with cutting-edge commercially available instruments and learning how to assess their respective strengths and applications.
Throughout the week, participants engaged in 8 parallel practical sessions covering a wide range of techniques, including surface-based methods, real-time cell-binding assays, in-solution techniques and single molecule/particle approaches.
In addition to technical training, the program featured presentations by 18 leading experts from both academia and industry, who shared insights into how these methods are applied in current research. A dedicated session also focused on data analysis and the deposition of kinetic data into the MOSBRI -developed MBDB.
Course material and further information are available here:
https://www.mosbri.eu/training/advanced-level-schools/als2/
ESC9: Correlative microscopy: from cells to single molecules
The MOSBRI Advanced Microscopy Practical Workshop took place from the 2nd to 6th of December 2024, at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa, Italy. Organized within the framework of the 9th NIC@IIT by the Nikon Imaging Centre, this five-day intensive course brought together 10 participants from 9 countries—France, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK, Spain, Slovenia, Greece, the United Arab Emirates, and Serbia. The workshop aimed to provide participants with a solid foundation in modern optical microscopy and spectroscopy, with particular emphasis on super-resolution and correlative microscopy techniques. A key strength of the course was its hands-on approach: attendees engaged in practical sessions that covered the entire workflow, from sample preparation to data analysis, reinforcing theoretical concepts with real-world application.
All course material is available for download on the MOSBRI website
https://www.mosbri.eu/training/end-user-short-courses/esc9/
ESC10: End user short course Protein-membrane interactions
From the 12th to 14th of May 2025, the Department of Molecular Biology and Nanobiotechnology at the National Institute of Chemistry (NIC), Ljubljana, Slovenia, hosted a 3-day training school focused on protein–membrane interactions. This specialized course welcomed ten participants, all of them early career researchers, from six countries—Italy, Spain, France, Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovenia—offering a unique opportunity for hands-on learning in the field of membrane biophysics.
The program introduced participants to widely used biophysical approaches for studying how proteins interact with lipid membranes. Through a combination of theoretical lectures and practical sessions, attendees explored the principles and techniques behind model lipid membrane systems, including nanodiscs, small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs), large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs), and giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs). Hands-on training was a core component of the school. Participants prepared model membranes, handled protein samples, and gathered and analysed data using advanced instrumentation. Students had the opportunity to apply these techniques to their own samples, allowing them to generate meaningful data directly related to their ongoing research work.
All course material is available for download on the MOSBRI website
https://www.mosbri.eu/training/end-user-short-courses/esc10/
Fighting skin cancer with spider venom
– A TNA mediated learning experience for an early-stage researcher
Skin cancers are the most frequently diagnosed cancers globally with a projected increase in cases of 50% by 2040. A highly aggressive form of skin cancer is melanoma, with mutations in the BRAF gene present in 40–50% of the cases. The metastatic potential of melanoma, combined with chemotherapy resistance, often leads to poor treatment results, with some therapeutics hindered by toxicity and resistance.
Animal venoms, rich in bioactive molecules, offer a promising source for drug development. Gomesin peptides, such as AgGom from Acanthoscurria gomesiana and HiGom from Hadronyche infensa, have shown potent antimicrobial and anticancer activities in BRAF-melanoma models.
The visit to NIC in Ljubljana of Daniel Rainho, an early-stage researcher from IMDEA Food in Madrid, focused on fluorescence detected calcein leakage assays and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for investigating the time evolution of how lipid composition, particularly phosphatidylserine enrichment and cholesterol content, influences peptide binding, membrane disruption, and activity.
The MOSBRI TNA programme allowed for a month-long research stay at NIC providing ample opportunities for developing new skills in advanced molecular biophysics techniques. The experimental work produced valuable and reliable results, which contributed both directly to their ongoing research, but also opened new avenues and future international collaborations.
TNA – A career changing steppingstone
After several years of employment at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Dr Angeliki Giannouli found herself in a difficult situation between jobs and in need of a new direction. To keep the career going Dr Giannouli reached out to the MOSBRI TNA site EPR-MRS for research opportunities. Through a MOSBRI TNA project on in-cell EPR study of a bacterial Hsp90 chaperone, she secured funding for a 1 month stay in Marseille. This experience not only expanded her expertise in the application of EPR techniques in the intracellular study of proteins but also played a key role in her transition to a new academic chapter. Shortly afterwards, Dr. Giannouli was appointed Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Crete in Heraklion, Greece. Angeliki presented her TNA research at the MOSBRI 2025 conference in Paris, showcasing the impact of collaborative opportunities on scientific -and professional- growth.
Outreach to the Society of Africa Biophysical Societies (SABS)
– Trans-continental access to LAMBS from Kenya
In 2024 the MOSBRI partner AFFINImeter (S4SD) in Spain initiated contact with the Society of Africa Biophysical Societies (SABS). This led to extensive discussions between MOSBRI and SABS in search of suitable TNA projects that fit the purpose and expertise of MOSBRI partners and would lead to valuable exchange of knowledge in biophysical methodologies. In the process, the president of SABS, Dr Philip Amuyunzu Mang’are, was invited to the 2024 MOSBRI conference held in Ljubljana and the MOSBRI TNA maturation programme was used to suggest projects to be carried out at MOSBRI TNA sites, all of which was evaluated by the MOSBRI instrument expert panel.
This process resulted in the first SABS visit to the MOSBRI TNA site LAMBS in Genoa, for 10 days at the end of January 2025, with a project to study the effect of heavy metal permeation in cells. Fish are important nutrition world-wide, but in Africa heavy metal concentrations in water masses have been reported, exceeding the Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization recommended standards.
Dr. Mang’are is studying animal cell deformation due to heavy metal permeation (right).
Prior to their visit to Genoa, Dr Mang’are and Mr Aganyanya from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, with the support of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), conducted an analysis of water and sediment from Lake Naivasha. Their study revealed high levels of heavy metal pollutants and identified the most abundant and hazardous metal species.
Once in Genoa, under the guidance of Dr Elena Gatta, Senior technician at LAMBS, they cultured cells in the presence of varying concentrations of the five heavy metal species identified in the water analysis. MTT assays were then conducted to assess cell viability and determine the cytotoxicity of each ion. Based on these results, they defined concentrations that induced mild toxicity in cells and used these thresholds to treat new samples. After two days of exposure, the cells were labelled to visualize key cellular compartments, such as the nucleus and the cytoskeleton, using a super-resolution STED microscope (Stellaris 8, Leica Microsystems, Germany). The visit was highly successful, and further experiments are planned in 2025.
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