ARBRE and the COST Action MOBIEU

Molecular-scale biophysics is a dynamic interdisciplinary field that aims to study biological macromolecules and assemblies as a whole, at an intermediate level between atomic-resolution structural descriptions and cellular-level observations (“Between Atom and Cell”), with significant applications in biomedicine and drug discovery.
The ARBRE-MOBIEU network, launched in 2014 by Patrick England (Paris) and Thomas Jowitt (Manchester), aims to seed a large-scale pan-European interdisciplinary synergistic clustering, allowing to ally and synergize the power of spectroscopic, hydrodynamic, real-time microfluidic, thermodynamic and single-molecule approaches.

This novel open network will create an optimal environment for the development of innovative integrative biophysical approaches, at the level of data acquisition, analysis and modeling, as well as for the design of unprecedented and ambitious combinations of methodologies, to decipher more efficiently crucial biological phenomena and to overcome significant biomedical challenges.

ARBRE-MOBIEU will also broadly disseminate knowledge, notably through the organization of a strong programme of Workshops, Training Schools and Short Term Scientific Missions aimed in priority to Early Career Investigators and technical scientists.

In parallel, it will place a special emphasis on the construction of a new distributed molecular-scale biophysics European infrastructure, aiming to facilitate the transnational access to instrumentation and expertise for a wide user community, in particular from Inclusiveness Target Countries.

Finally, ARBRE-MOBIEU will provide a platform for scientists to establish early contacts with instrument developers (at the level of concept or prototype), allowing to set-up win-win partnerships that will allow to define and develop together future instrumentation that genuinely meets the needs of the broad biomedical and life sciences communities.