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PORTRAIT

March 2023 ESRFnews

S T U A R T I N G H A M/E M B L

In 1992, the year that Kristina

Djinović-Carugo defended her PhD,

the first experiments were performed

at the ESRF, ushering in a new era for

structural biology with third-generation

synchrotrons. Last year – three decades

later – she became head of the Grenoble

site of the European Molecular

Biology Laboratory (EMBL), again

when the field is being pushed by new

technology, not least the upgrade of the

ESRF to the world’s brightest fourth-

generation light source. To her mind,

EMBL Grenoble has long excelled at

supporting these developments, and she

has no wish to make big changes to how

it operates. “I’m lucky that it’s well-oiled

machinery,” she says, nine months into

her new role. “I want to capitalise on its

strengths.”

Indeed, EMBL Grenoble predates

the ESRF by nearly two decades, and

has integrated itself with the light

source from the start. Scientists and

engineers from both institutions form

the Joint Structural Biology Group

(JSBG), which develops innovative

instrumentation and supports

access to five ESRF beamlines for

macromolecular crystallography

(MX), one for biological small-angle

scattering and the ESRF’s cryo-

electron microscopy platform; a

broader Partnership for Structural

Biology with the Institut de Biologie

Structurale (IBS) and the Institut

LaueLangevin ILL operates core

scientific platforms ranging from

protein expression to biophysical

methods based on large facilities

Currently the JSBG is upgrading one

of the MX beamlines ID29 to perform

synchrotron serial crystallography for

timeresolved studies a feat that is only

possible thanks to the EBS upgrade

Well be able to see the molecular

gymnastics during reactions says

DjinovićCarugo

The EMBL Grenoble head

knows firsthand the importance

of synchrotron studies. Her first

leadership role, in 1999, was leading

the then-new structural biology lab

at the Elettra synchrotron in Trieste,

Italy. She herself is interested in Z disks

– the boundaries between the basic

contractile units of striated skeletal and

heart muscles. Z disks are critical for

conveying force through muscles on a

macroscopic scale: Djinović-Carugo

has wanted to know exactly what

their architecture is, and how they

assemble. In one important study, she

and her colleagues used an integrative

structural-biology approach to

determine the structure of the major Z

disk protein

a-actinin and its complex

with an intrinsically disordered

protein, which are involved in heart

and skeletal muscle diseases (Sci. Adv.

7 eabg7653). “These are very gratifying

studies, where you can see that one

single mutation of one single amino

acid residue can cause a drama,” she says.

Now as head of EMBL Grenoble,

she is able to harbour even grander

ambitions. Beginning last year,

EMBL’s current five-year programme

is entitled “Molecules to ecosystems”,

an encouragement for scientists to

investigate the molecular basis of life

not in typically sterile lab conditions,

but in the complicated, changing and

indeed messy context that properly

represents the natural world. That

means studying how biological

molecules interact within cells for

example or delving into the murky

roles of dark matter proteins that

mediate interactions between microbes

or with their environment In pursuit

of this goal however DjinovićCarugo

and her colleagues at the EMBL have

the best partners right next door on the

EPN campus the IBS and the ILL as

well as the ESRF These are currently

the brightest neutron and synchrotron

sources on planet Earth she says



Jon Cartwright

EMBL Grenoble has worked with the ESRF

on structural biology from the beginning.

Kristina Djinović-Carugo, the lab’s new

head, wants to preserve that relationship.

Stronger together

KRISTINA DJINOVIĆ-CARUGO IN BRIEF

BORN: Ljubljana, Slovenia (1963)

EDUCATION: PhD structural biochemistry, University

of Ljubljana and Pavia (1992).

CAREER: Postdoc, Department of Microbiology

and Genetics, University of Pavia, Italy (1992–1995);

European Molecular Biology Organization postdoctoral

fellow, structural biology programme, EMBL Heidelberg,

Germany (1995–1997); staff scientist, EMBL-Heidelberg

(1997–1999); Head of structural biology, Elettra

synchrotron, Trieste, Italy (1999–2004); Professor of

structural biology, Max F Perutz Laboratories, University

of Vienna, Austria (2004–); Head of department of

structural and computational biology (2009–2022);

Director, Laura Bassi Centre for Optimized Structural

Studies, University of Vienna (2010–2016); Co-head,

CD-Laboratory for High-Content Structural Biology and

Biotechnology, University of Vienna (2016–); Head,

EMBL Grenoble (2022–).

“With the EBS , we’ll

be able to see the

molecular gymnastics

during reactions