Structural and Molecular Biology
The SMB research group is organised in 7 research labs in the Lisbon pole in a total of 22 integrated members (11 permanent faculty; 1 MD PhD; 10 non-permanent research staff) who supervise 21 PhD students.
The SMB group leverages a suite of spectroscopic techniques, to drive research on biomolecular interactions, elucidating structural and functional relationships, advance drug discovery, and understand biomolecular dynamics and regulation. The SMB group is now able to study larger and more complex biostructures by an integrative approach using NMR, X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM.
An area of active synergized research at SMB is Glycoscience to understand mucin O-glycan biosynthesis and recognition, unravelling host-human microbiome and immune system interactions in the context of infection and cancer.
The SMB group will pursue structural and functional studies on the understanding of biological nanocages, particularly from the ferritin family proteins and encapsulins enabling the rational design of protein nanocages further assembled into functional fibers. The extracellular electron transfer pathways of electrogenic bacteria are in the frontline to develop sustainable application in the bioremediation, bioenergy and bioelectronics.
By using a combination of diverse and synergic structural and biophysical methodologies, we will study the role of liquid-liquid protein phase separation in neurodegenerative diseases and monitor conformational changes of membrane protein transporters involved in neurotransmission. Further structural studies (x-ray, cryo-EM and Time-Resolved Serial Synchrotron Crystallography) will uncover enzymatic mechanisms of complex metalloenzymes (eg CO2 reductase) for applications with environmental impact (eg CO2 reduction). Metalloenzymes involved in detoxification of copper and reactive oxygen species in pathogenic bacteria will also be studied and contribute to design new antimicrobial agents.