History of NYSBC

The Consortium

The New York Structural Biology Center (NYSBC) was formed in 1999 by a consortium of nine preeminent biomedical research institutions in New York.  Its goal was to provide researchers with access to state-of-the-art instrumentation not feasible for individual institutions acting alone.  The creation of NYSBC was a pioneering experiment in cooperation, a model that others would follow in New York and the rest of the country.

Building and Expanding NYSBC

The NYSBC opened its main facility in 2002 at 89 Convent Avenue on the City College of New York campus. The Center focused first on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy but quickly added X-ray crystallography and Cryoelectron microscopy, the two other key technologies of structural biology.

Today, NYSBC is widely recognized as a world leader. NYSBC’s Cryoelectron microscopy group is one of three national facilities funded by the National Institutes of Health. NYSBC is also one of a handful of US institutions to recognized by NIH for innovative and important technology development. What began as an experiment in local cooperation has proven to be an unparalleled national success.