PICT is a multidisciplinary platform which aims at providing the scientific and medical community with a complete package of technologies and expertise allowing the random- or structure-based identification and the rational design of inhibitors of therapeutic targets, or effectors of any other target, the discovery of new enzymes and the characterization of their interactions.
At IPBS, PICT offers a wide panel of technologies for the identification of ligands and for the characterization of proteins and protein-ligands complexes. Screening of our in-house fragment library (about 1000 compounds) as well as our in-house larger compounds (about 10,000 compounds selected for their chemical tractability) can be performed using biophysical screening technologies (thermalshift analysis, STD-NMR, X-ray crystallography,…).
Characterization of proteins and their complexes relies on Dynamic Light Scattering, Size Exclusion Chromatography coupled to Multi-Angle Static Light Scattering, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry, Differential Scanning Fluorescence, NMR (500 MHz, 600 MHz cryoprobe and 700 MHz) and X-ray crystallography (crystallization and visualization robots, X-ray diffractometers). Additionally, 224-cores and 40-cores clusters are dedicated to molecular modeling and virtual screening. Expert peptide synthesis is also available.
PICT combines the know-how and the expertise of three facilities located in Toulouse: the Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale, which is the coordinator site (IPBS: biophysics, structural biology, and bioinformatics), the Laboratoire de Synthèse et de PhysicoChimie de Molécules d’Intérêt Biologique (LSPCMIB: medicinal chemistry) and the Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés (LISBP: enzyme discovery and optimization).
PICT has received the national IBiSA label and has been certified ISO-9001 since 2012 and NFX 50/900 since 2015.
PICT is resolutely open to academic and government agencies as well as to companies at both the local and national levels. Different kinds of services are offered ranging from access to specialized equipment to a complete service delivery, collaborative contracts, and industrial partnerships.
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Cala O et al. (2013) Virtual and biophysical screening targeting the gamma-tubulin complex–A new target for the inhibition of microtubule nucleation. PLOS One, 8(5): e63908
Arab-Jaziri F et al. (2012) Functional roles of H98 and W99 and b2a2 loop dynamics in the a-L-arabinofuranosidase from Thermobacillus xylanilyticus. FEBS J, 279: 3598-611
Perrody E et al. (2012) A Bacteriophage-Encoded J-Domain Protein Interacts with the DnaK/Hsp70 Chaperone and Stabilizes the Heat-Shock Factor sigma(32) of Escherichia coli. PLOS Genet, 8(11): e1003037
Project Manager
Virginie Nahoum
Research Assistants
