Hello from France!

It has been a while since the last post, and there certainly are a lot of updates!

We arrived in Europe last Saturday (6/25) in the afternoon. Our flights flew into Geneva, Switzerland, and from there we rode a passenger bus through the French Alps and into France. The drive over was absolutely amazing. Both sides of the freeway were flanked by small forests with various trees and shrubs only to be interrupted by small patches of grassy areas or farms. Of the crops we saw there was definitely corn and lettuce (both red and green leaf), though corn seemed to be the larger majority. Once in France, our first stop was in the town of Chambery before we headed to our final destination of Grenoble. We did not stay long in Chambery - only a few minutes to drop off a couple of people we shared the bus ride with - but the town certainly had a quiet and rustic feel to it. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures while we were there; however, Googles images has some representative pictures which provide a much better impression of the city that I cannot be described in words.

From Chambery it was onwards to Grenoble. Grenoble is situated in the southeastern part of France and is about 60 km southwest of Chambery. The city itself is scientifically well-recognized, housing the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), and home to the Joseph Fourier University (UJF), as well as a number of other strong research centers. As mentioned in previous posts, the ACS GREET program has given us the opportunity to collaborate with Drs. Christophe Moreau and Michel Vivaudou with the intent of providing preliminary data illustrating the feasibility of incorporation of ion channel-coupled receptors (ICCRs) into ultra-stable polymerizable black lipid membranes for use as chemical sensors or high throughput drug screening devices. We will be at the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS), located near the ESRF, for seven weeks.

Our bus arrived at the train station in Grenoble, where we were warmly met by Christophe. He gave us a quick tour of the city, where IBS was stationed, and where our guesthouse was. He was able to get us housing on the ESRF campus, quite literally located within walking distance from the Synchrotron. Usually this housing is for visiting scientists who buy time to utilize the Synchrotron and the maximum days of occupancy is 15 days. We are very lucky to have someone as hospitable as Christophe. Well, it is time to settle in. As a way to pass time, here are citations to two of their publications we are very interested in:

Caro, L.N.; Moreau, C.J.; Revilloud, J.; Vivaudou, M., Beta-2-Adrenergic Ion-Channel Coupled Receptors as Conformational Motion Detectors (2011), PLoS One, Vol 6, Issue 3, e18226.

Moreau, C.J.; Dupuis, J.P.; Revolloud, J.; Arumugam, K.; Vivaudou, M., Coupling ion channels to receptors for biomolecule sensing (2008), Nature Nanotechnology, Vol 3, 620-625.