The Consortium

The New York Structural Biology Center (NYSBC) was formed in 1999 by a consortium of New York’s preeminent biomedical research institutions in order to address a common problem– how to stay abreast of latest-generation instrumentation required by world-class researchers so as to remain competitive nationally. The consortium’s objective was to provide advanced instrumentation in structural biology – a field concerned with the three-dimensional structure of proteins and their functions. The NYSBC focused initially on magnetic resonance spectrometers (NMRs, similar to MRI technology). Member institutions had invested in NMRs but none had latest-generation instruments. The NYSBC enabled New York’s universities and medical schools to pool resources, purchase several advanced NMRs, and house them in a shared facility.

Building and Expanding NYSBC

In 2002, the NYSBC opened at 89 Convent Avenue on the campus of the City College of New York, with four high-field NMRs – more latest-generation NMRs than at any other U.S. facility. Subsequent grant awards enabled the purchase two more NMRs at 900 MHz and expansion of the original 22,000 s.f. facility (Phase 1) with a new 12,000 s.f. wing (Phase 2).

A major grant from the New York Office of Science Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR), enabled the NYSBC to create a cryoelectron microscopy program with the purchase of three state-of-the-art microscopes and the construction of another wing (Phase 3).

NYSBC Phase 3 Topping-Off Ceremony, May 2005. L-R: James Capel, Office of Representative Charles Rangel; Assembleyman Keith L.T. Wright, NYSBC EVP and COO Willa Appel; Albert Einstein College of Medicine Dean Dominick Purpura;Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Chairman Emeritus Richard Rifkind; Weill Cornell Medical College Professor of Biochemistry Frederick Maxfield; Weill Cornell Medical College Dean Antonio Gotto.

Yet another opportunity arose in 2003, when the Howard Hughes Medical Institute decided that it would no longer operate the X4A beamline for X-Ray Crystallography at the National Synchrotron Light Source at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. NYSBC assumed ownership and operation of X4A in Sept. 2003; a second beamline, X4C, has since been brought on line. With advanced research resources in all three areas of structural biology, the NYSBC now is a unique facility, highly competitive for federal (NIH) grants and strategically positioned to make major advances in this important field.

In 2005, NYSBC received a $20 million grant as part of the NIH’s Protein Structure Initiative to establish the New York Consortium on Membrane Protein Structure (NYCOMPS). This specialized center focuses on accelerating and streamlining the processes for producing and determining the structure of membrane proteins, which act as a gateway to the cell.

Since its creation in 1999, the NYSBC has raised more than $61 million from federal, state, local and private funding sources. What began as an experiment in local cooperation has proven to be a successful competitive strategy enabling the NYSBC – and the State of New York -- to become a world center for structural biology.