The Centre de Recherche en Biologie Structurale (CRBS) is dedicated to facilitating cutting-edge research in structural biology by hosting a wide variety of modern biophysical equipment platforms at McGill. It provides access to skilled support staff, fosters collaborations and promotes interdisciplinary training of students and postdoctoral scholars. The CRBS brings together researchers from 11 departments of the Faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Science, Engineering and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Its current membership includes 47 active professors and their laboratories who are engaged in biophysical research.

​

The mission of the CRBS is to exploit the power of structural biology and biophysics to produce scientific breakthroughs in:

 

1. Determining the molecular basis of disease and treatments

2. Leveraging biophysical, chemical and synthetic biology for health

3. Nucleic acid biomedical discovery and application

​

At the same time, the CRBS will train a new generation of structural biologists and biophysicists with expertise in using cross-disciplinary approaches for biomedical research to make structural biology and its many strengths accessible to the broader biomedical research and health community.

 

Watch this cool video featuring several CRBS members and showing what the life looks like at CRBS! 

​​

The CRBS was created by the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQS) through its Programme de subvention des Centres et Instituts de recherche of 2019-2020, and is also supported by the McGill Faculty of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Vice-Principal (Research and Innovation). The CRBS builds on several past and ongoing multi-group research initiatives, including the McGill Center for Structural Biology, NSERC Collaborative REsearch And Training Experience (CREATE) Training Program in Bionanomachines, the FRQ-S Groupe de Recherche Axé sur la Structure des Protéines (GRASP), the CIHR Strategic Training Programs in Chemical Biology and in Systems Biology, and projects with infrastructure grants from the CFI and the government of Quebec. The CRBS coordinates with the Quebec Regional High Field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility and the Facility for Electron Microscopy Research to provide a collaborative and supportive environment for research and training in structural biology and biophysics.