M4I Division of Nanoscopy strives for greater insight into the 3D form of cell proteins, paving the way for developing more effective treatments for diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis while gaining better understanding of how protein complexes manage healthy and diseased cells, allowing drugs and vaccines to work more effectively.
The M4I Division of Nanoscopy investigates cell structures at a macromolecular level. Inside cells, proteins work together in complex structures and are responsible for virtually all processes in the human body, including diseases such as cancer. To understand the working mechanisms of protein complexes, three-dimensional imaging of normal and disease-causing protein complexes is essential. This could ultimately lead to more effective treatments, but also to vaccines against diseases such as tuberculosis.
“Tumour cells are actually degenerate cells that have learned to escape the immune system. Our task is to discover how they do that, and how you can train the immune system to break them down.”
Researchers at Maastricht University (UM) and Avans University of Applied Sciences are developing a method that enables person profiling on the basis of hair.
Scientists from Maastricht University (UM) and researchers from Denmark and Germany have developed a new technique to accurately determine both the location and identity of lipids in bodily tissues in a single workflow. Lipids are essential molecules in every cell of our body and intimately involved in many important biological functions.
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) is allocating more than 17 million euros in subsidies for the further development of a Dutch network for electron microscopy (NEMI). Almost 5 million of this will go to UM. From Maastricht, the M4I institute of university professors Ron Heeren (mass spectrometry) and Peter Peters (cryo-electron microscopy) is one of the initiators of NEMI.