Monash University is partnering with the Australian Synchrotron and other key institutions to launch a $2.9 million national project – delivering a robotic laboratory capable of drastically speeding up the invention, trials and commercialisation of medicines by Australian researchers.
The nationally accessible facility, backed by a Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) National Critical Research Infrastructure grant, will house Australia’s first automated system for high-throughput X-ray crystallography, often referred to as HTX, at the Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) beamlines at the Australian Synchrotron in Clayton.
HTX is a powerful scientific technique that involves blasting tiny biological crystals with X-rays to map the exact 3D shape of disease-causing proteins – revealing how a molecule binds to its target.
Synchrotron Principal Scientist (MX) Dr Rachel Williamson and Senior Scientific Software Developer Dr Kate Smithare co-investigators on the grant.
“We are very excited to be part of this important initiative, that extends the analytical capabilities of the beamline to include a High-throughput Crystallographic Fragment Screening platform,” said Dr Williamson.
“Our entire team will be involved in building this capability, using our experience and expertise in crystallography and scientific computation to implement the platform.”
Read more on the ANSTO website
Image: (Left to right) Alan Riboldi-Tunnicliffe, Rachel Williamson, Yogesh Khandokar, Kate Smith and Santosh Panjikar