SBNet - History
The main objective of the Programme when founded 1994 was to guarantee a continued world-class status for
Swedish Structural Biology research. The area had become exponentially more important in
the preceding decade, both because of basic scientific interest and curiosity, and because of
the many potential industrial applications. Our plan was to strengthen the curiosity-based
research in the following strategic areas: membrane proteins, receptor-ligand interaction,
protein design, development of computational methods to study enzyme catalysis and drug
design. The aims of the programme, as defined in the original proposal, were as follows:
- "to guarantee a world-class status for Swedish Structural Biology research.
- to reinforce excellent research groups.
- to carry out academic research of the highest calibre.
- to make new efforts to try and remedy perceived current weaknesses. In the first
instance, this means establishing a dedicated laboratory for protein expression at
Uppsala University.
- to strengthen academic research in areas that will be of direct interest to Swedish
industry. In particular, we will encourage projects to study integral membrane and
receptors proteins, drug design and structures of high medical relevance.
- to improve graduate-student training in Structural Biology, to bring it to a worldclass
level.
- to stimulate contacts with industry to facilitate the knowledge transfer that is needed
to keep Swedish companies on an equal footing with their foreign competitors.
- to improve interactions between the different structural biology groups working in
Sweden.
- to interact with other programmes supported by the Foundation".
The following four-tiered approach was proposed in 1994 to strengthen the strategic
value of Structural Biology in Sweden:
- To reinforce excellence; by supporting new strategic research efforts of the
groups that are competing at the highest international level.
- To remedy current weaknesses; in particular, by building a protein-expression
laboratory in Uppsala.
- To elevate graduate training to a world-class level; by organising advanced
courses and conferences open to all Nordic students and researchers with an
interest in Structural Biology.
This page provides links to loads of other documents and web pages
that track the history and activities of the Structural Biology
Network from the initial planning in 1994 to the present day.
Latest update at 3 January, 2005.
