MX Unit

The Macromolecular Crystallography Unit at ITQB, coordinated by Doctor Pedro Matias, is a top research group that studies biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, to a resolution high enough to allow elucidation of the detailed mechanisms by which these macromolecules carry out their functions in living cells and organisms.

While the Unit employs mostly X-ray crystallography, the studies are complemented with a wide array of techniques, both structural and biochemical, to answer specific biological questions of each group. X-ray Crystallography is a technique that makes use of electron scattering of X-ray waves by macromolecules in its crystallized form, in order to determine the three-dimensional structure of a particular protein or complex.

The Unit is presently composed of five laboratories, each one specialized in a different field of research: the Structural Genomics Laboratory, headed by Maria Arménia Carrondo, the Industrial and Medical Applied Crystallography Laboratory, headed by Pedro Matias, the Membrane Protein Crystallography Laboratory, headed by Margarida Archer, the Structural Virology Lab, headed by Colin McVey and the Applied Protein Biochemistry Lab headed by João Vicente.

The Unit is involved in several national and international projects (such as the CryoEM-PT network, and Instruct-ERIC, a pan-European research infrastructure in structural biology), and participates as a centre in The Portuguese Instruct Research Site (Instruct-PT). It is currently coordinating a Horizon 2020 Twinning project IMPACT, the main goal of this project is knowledge transfer in Cryo-EM methodologies.

Pedro Matias has replaced Professor Maria Arménia Carrondo as Unit Coordinator in February 2024, after she expressed the wish to step down. Professor Carrondo was the founder of the Macromolecular Crystallography Group at CTQB in 1988 (later ITQB NOVA) and coordinated the Unit after its creation in 2008.