BMX

Biomedical Research with X-rays (FS-BMX) mission

Highly brilliant X-ray sources, such as the PETRA III synchrotron and the European XFEL, offer new and exciting opportunities for high-resolution structural investigations of biological samples. At FS-BMX it is our mission to improve existing and develop new methods to make optimal use of the capabilities of these radiation sources and to apply these developments to societally highly relevant scientific challenges in the field of structural biology. We are a team of scientists and hard- and software engineers working closely together, which allows us performing these method developments in an efficient way and in short time. For all our developments we aim at the highest degree of automation possible and to enable stable routine measurements at high-throughput.

On the application side we have a strong focus on drug discovery. Here we perform high-throughput X-ray compound screening experiments as initial step and conduct complementary biochemical and biophysical assays for subsequent hit validation. Lead compounds from these screens are then iteratively optimised in order to achieve optimal inhibition properties with the goal to develop drug candidates suitable for preclinical evaluation. For these we are collaborating with several external partners.

More recently we have started to explore the potential of high-energy electron diffraction for the process of drug discovery.