History of the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research

Utrecht University and the Netherlands Foundation for Chemical Research (SON) founded the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research as a joint research institute on March 25, 1988. The objective of this collaboration was to create a center for research and expertise in structural biology with an internationally recognized academic staff and an advanced instrumental and computational infrastructure. The identification of a steadily increasing number of genome sequences has generated a need for functional studies to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of life. The research groups of the Bijvoet Center are well equipped to enter this new era of structural and functional genomics.

The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Council of Chemical Sciences (NWO-CW, formerly SON), promotes scientific research in the chemical sciences at Dutch universities, in part by supporting national research institutes and facilities. The Bijvoet Center was founded with support from NWO-CW and continues to receive support in the form of infrastructure investment. Two national facilities housed within the Bijvoet Center are supported by NWO-CW. The Department of NMR Spectroscopy hosts the European SON NMR Large Scale Facility (SON NMR LSF), which provides scientists from national and international groups with access to state of the art NMR equipment and expertise. The Department of Crystallography provides national research teams with access to crystal structure elucidation through the X-ray Participation Project

In 1992, the Bijvoet Graduate Research School for Biomolecular Chemistry received accreditation from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In 1997 and in 2002, renewed its accreditation as renewed. The Bijvoet Graduate School has a firm base in the Faculties of Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Medicine of Utrecht University. Its staff participates in the research and educational programs of the Academic Biomedical Centre (ABC), the Centre for Biomedical Genetics (CBG), the Institute and Graduate School of Biomembranes (IB), and the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS). The Bijvoet School provides educational programs for young researchers to prepare them to meet the challenges of the post-genomic era.

The 20th anniversary of the Bijvoet Center, in 2008, was celebrated with the organization of the Bijvoet Anniversary Symposium. It was held in the "Spoorwegmuseum" in Utrecht on 7 and 8 April 2008 and featured renowned international speakers from the field of Biomolecular Research. For the occasion of this anniversary, a book detailing the history and research of the Center was published under the title "A quest for structure and function, visions behind the Bijvoet Center". A digital copy of the book can be dowloaded here (PDF format, 15 Mb).