We have posted the final schedule. Please download a copy. Or download a more comprehensive schedule here.
For a more detailed description of the sessions, please scroll down, or to download a pdf, click here.
WORKSHOPS
WK.01 SHELX – Refinement of Twins/Disorder and Phasing with SHELX, C,D,E
Organized by Peter Müller, pmueller@mit.edu
Part 1: Refinement of Disordered, Twinned and High-Resolution Structures (Small and Macromolecules).
Part 2: Experimental Phasing of Macromolecules
Level of expertise: Intermediate
Outline: This workshop is going to be a full-day workshop. However, the plan is to sub-divide it into two halves with participants able to attend either or both. Part 1 (morning session) will be dedicated to the refinement of disordered and/or twinned structures (quite possibly with some emphasis on whole molecule disorder) with SHELXL. Part 2 (afternoon session) is going to be about phasing with SHELXC, SHELXD and SHELXE. Even though it is likely that the morning session will attract mostly small molecule crystallographers while the afternoon half will be tailored more to the needs of macromolecular crystallographers, we would like to encourage everybody to stay for the full day. All participants are expected to bring their own laptop computer.
Invited Speakers:
George Sheldrick, Göttingen Univ., Germany
Regine Herbst-Irmer, Göttingen Univ., Germany
Peter Müller, MIT, Boston, MA
Thomas R. Schneider, IFOM-IEO, Germany
Ton Spek, Utrecht Univ., The Netherlands
Registration Fee:
Part 1 only or Part 2 only: $70 ($40 for students)
Part 1 and Part 2: $110 ($60 for students)
WK.02 Standards for Publication of Macromolecular NMR Structures
Organized by Howard Einspahr, hmeinspahr@yahoo.com
Validation of Macromolecular Structures: Updating Standards for Publication of NMR Structures in an IUCr Journal
In 2006, Acta Crystallographica Section F published a structural genomics report in which the structure was determined by means of NMR. The standards by which the paper was judged and accepted were those of the 1998 IUPAC compilation supplemented with the expertise of carefully chosen referees. Much progress has been made in development of NMR experimental and computational methods in the years since the IUPAC standards were published. The goal of this all-day workshop is to identify those areas of NMR structure determination where updated publication standards are needed and to draft a set of updates to supplement the IUPAC standards for use by Acta Crystallographica Section F editors and referees for evaluating future NMR submissions.
Registration Fee: $125 ($75 for students)
AWARD SESSIONS
AW.01 Kenneth N. Trueblood Award
Small Molecules, General Interest, Service Crystallography
Organized by Joel Bernstein, yoel@bgu.ac.il and Carol Brock, cpbrock@uky.edu
The Trueblood Award, given for the first time in 2004, was created to recognize exceptional achievement in computational or chemical crystallography. The 2007 award honors Angelo Gavezzotti, Univ. di Milano, for his many contributions to the understanding of packing in molecular crystals. These contributions include the writing of three important computer programs for the calculation of lattice energies of molecular crystals and for the prediction of the lowest-energy polymorph. The Award Symposium will focus on understanding packing in molecular crystals and on crystal structure prediction (CSP) for molecular solids. The list of speakers for the session has not yet been finalized; it is expected that several contributed talks will be included.
AW.02 Isidor Fankuchen Award
Small Molecules, General Interest, Service Crystallography
Organized by Carol Brock, cpbrock@uky.edu , and Joel Bernstein, yoel@bgu.ac.il
The Fankuchen Award, established in 1971, is given to recognize contributions to crystallographic research by one who is known to be an effective teacher of crystallography. The 2007 award honors Frank Herbstein, Technion-Israel Inst. of Technology, for his decades of prodigious scholarship and careful experimental work, especially in the areas of solid-state molecular compounds and of phase transitions in molecular solids. The Award Symposium will focus on these two areas of research. The list of speakers for the session has not yet been finalized; it is expected that several contributed talks will be included.
AW.03 Margaret C. Etter Early Career Award
Young Scientist, General Interest
Organized by Peter Horanyi, magyar@virginia.edu
The Etter Early Career Award recognizes the outstanding achievement and exceptional potential in crystallographic research demonstrated by a scientist at an early stage of their independent career. Cora Lind, Univ. of Toledo, has been selected to receive the 2007 award. The award, established in 2002, is given annually to honor the memory of Professor Margaret C. Etter (1943-1992). She was a major contributor to the field of organic solid-state chemistry. Her work emphasized the use of hydrogen bonds and co-crystals. She was a great mentor to students and an inspiration to colleagues. The YSSIG and General Interest Group are teaming up to highlight up-and-coming crystallographers in this half-day session. Contributions from students and post-docs that encompass all areas of crystallography are invited.
TRANSACTIONS SYMPOSIUM
TR.01 Diffuse Scattering for the Masses: The Characterization of Local Structural Correlations in Molecular, Macromolecular, and Inorganic Crystals Small Molecules, Service, Powder Diffraction, Materials Science, Neutron Scattering
Organized by Branton Campbell, branton@byu.edu , Thomas Proffen, tproffen@lanl.gov , George Phillips, phillips@biochem.wisc.edu
Many of the most useful properties and functions of crystalline systems originate not in the ideal crystal structure itself, but in the ability to locally deviate from the ideal structure. Well-known cases include protein deformations, chiral mixtures, solid electrolytes, zeolite catalysts, defect-hardened structural alloys and high-temperature superconductors. Such short and intermediate-range structural correlations are encoded in the continuous diffuse scattering distribution that lies between the discrete Bragg reflections. Due to ever more capable instrumentation, it is now fairly common to observe this valuable source of structural information in area-detector images. This symposium will focus on the application of diffuse scattering methods to current problems in molecular, macromolecular and inorganic structural science, in addition to addressing the acquisition, visualization and interpretation of diffuse scattering data.
Invited Speakers:
Ross Angel,Virginia, Virgina Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Simon Billinge, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI
James Britten, McMaster Univ., Hamilton, Canada
Branton J. Campbell, Brigham Young Univ., Salt Lake City, UT
Donald L. D. Caspar, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL
Friedrich Frey, Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München, Munich, Germany
Lars Meinhold, Univ. Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
George N. Phillips, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Lee Robertson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN
Stephan Rosenkranz, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL
T. Richard Welberry, Australian National Univ., Canberra, Australia
SPECIAL SESSION
SP.01 Undergraduate Research Showcase
ACA Continuing Education Committee
Organized by Katherine Kanterdjieff, kkantardjieff@exchange.fullerton.edu
Papers are invited for either oral presentations or posters to be given by undergraduates on their crystallography research. The studies can be from any area of crystallography, but the majority of the work being presented must have been completed by the student. In addition presentations by mentors describing the incorporation of crystallography into undergraduate curricula and research are welcome. All undergraduate participants will receive a certificate from the American Institute of Physics and a commemorative pin.
The “Undergraduate Research Poster Prize” and “Undergraduate Research Presentation Prize”, sponsored by the American Institute of Physics through the Society of Physics Students, will be presented to undergraduate students at the ACA banquet. The winners will each receive $200 and a banquet ticket. Posters and oral presentations will be judged by committee, during the time the student is presenting his/her research. Presentations and posters will be judged on organization and clarity, presentation, and report of the research.
To be eligible for these awards, the poster or oral presentationmust describe research with a significant crystallographic component, students must demonstrate a command of the science, and students must have completed the majority of the work being presented. Please indicate your wish to be considered for either of these awards with your abstract submission.
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP SPONSORED SESSIONS
BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES SESSIONS
01.01 New Structures
Organized by John Horton, jrhorto@emory.edu, Carl C Correll, carl.correll@rosalindfranklin.edu
This session will highlight recent macromolecular crystal structures of particular importance and interest to a wide audience. Presentations will be chosen from submitted abstracts or by invitation.
01.02 Strategies for Crystallization Challenged Macromolecules
Organized by Russell Judge, russell.judge@abbott.com, Janet Newman, Janet.Newman@csiro.au
In the crystallization of macromolecules, large macromolecule assemblies, protein-protein complexes, membrane proteins and some soluble proteins prove particularly challenging. What are good strategies for tackling these difficult targets? This session will focus on techniques and methods for crystallizing problematic macromolecules, including clone design, expression, purification, characterization, screening, optimization, and novel crystallization methods.
01.03 Experimental Phasing with Longer Wavelength X-rays
Organized by Manfred S. Weiss, msweiss@embl-hamburg.de, Bi-Cheng Wang, wang@BCL1.bmb.uga.edu
In the past few years, the collection of diffraction data at wavelengths longer than 1.5 A has gained considerable popularity. At such wavelengths the anomalous scattering of sulfur, phosphorous and other light atoms is significantly enhanced compared to when the data are collected at the typically used wavelengths around 1.0 A. In many cases, it has been possible to carry out a complete structure determination by SAD (single wavelength anomalous diffraction) based on just the long wavelength data set. Current methodological developments in the field of experimental phasing using longer X-ray wavelengths will be presented as well as some structural highlights.
01.04 New Membrane Protein Structures
Organized by Bert van den Berg, bert.vandenberg@umassmed.edu , Hartmut Luecke, hudel@uci.edu
Membrane proteins represent an exciting frontier in the area of structural biology. These proteins represent a large fraction of all known proteins, and they mediate some of the most interesting and important processes known to biology. Yet only recently have their structures begin to be elucidated at any appreciable rate. This session will be devoted to new structures of membrane proteins and to advances in membrane protein structure analysis. Presentations in this session will be chosen from submitted abstracts or by invitation.
01.05 Informatics in Structural Biology
Organized by John Westbrook, jwest@rcsb.rutgers.edu, Kim Henrick, henrick@ebi.ac.uk
This session will focus on the applications of structural informatics in the following areas: large scale analysis and data mining projects using existing public data resources; the development of informatics tools and databases to facilitate analysis and comparison of 3D structure data; integrative data mining of structure and biological data resources; and novel informatics approaches combining the search of 2D/3D molecular structure data with biological and physical chemical data.
01.06 Function from Structure
Organized by Sung-Hou Kim, shkim@lbl.gov , Osnat Herzberg, osnat@carb.nist.gov
Due to the dramatic success of DNA sequencing, over 16 million protein sequences are now available and the list is increasing very rapidly every year. This vast number of protein sequences can be grouped into about 10,000 curated sequence families based on amino acid sequence similarities among the members of each family. Each family is expected to have one or a few molecular functions, and participate, with other proteins, in one or more cellular functions. At present, only about 1/3 of these families have inferred molecular functions based on sequence similarities with proteins of known functions or indirectly inferred (transitive) functions, and 1/3 of these may be in error. It is important to develop experimental and computational methods to determine or infer the function of a protein of unknown function by information beyond sequence similarity. Structure of proteins can provide such information. In this session, we present various different approaches using the structural information of proteins directly or indirectly to infer molecular functions of proteins of unknown function.
Invited Speakers:
Janet Thornton, European Bioinformatics Inst, Cambridge, UK
Doug Brutlag, Stanford Univ. School of Medicine, Stanford, CA
Sung-Hou Kim, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA
Osnat Herzberg, CARB, NIST, Rockville, MD
Aled Edwards, Univ. of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Alfonso Valencia, Univ. Autonoma, Madrid, Spain
01.07 Computational Methods
Organized by Ethan Merritt, merritt@u.washington.edu , P. Adams, PDAdams@lbl.gov
This session is intended to present the latest and most exciting new developments in the methodologies of macromolecular structure determination, refinement, and structure analysis. Of particular interest are methods that combine conventional crystallographic analysis with information from other disciplines, whether in pursuit of initial phases or in order to maximize the usefulness of a crystallographic model for such tasks as in silico docking. Presentations will be a mixture of invited talks and talks chosen from submitted abstracts.
01.08 Large and Difficult Structures
Organized by Chris Hill, chris@biochem.utah.edu, Liang Tong, tong@como.bio.columbia.edu
One focus of this session is on the structures and functionally-important conformational changes of large assemblies, which often form the molecular machinery of life. Advances in methodology are making structures of these complexes increasingly amenable to crystallographic analysis, but significant challenges remain. Hence the other focus of the session is on the technical difficulties, and their solutions, in the structure determination of these large complexes as well as macromolecules in general. Thus, this session should be of interest to crystallographers chasing the tastier high-hanging fruit of structural biology.
Invited Speaker:
Venki Ramakrishnan, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Also see joint sessions: 13.03, 13.05, 13.08, 13.10
FIBER DIFFRACTION SESSONS
See joint session: 13.02
GENERAL INTEREST SESSIONS
03.01 and 03.02 General Interest I and II
Organized by Bruce Noll, bnoll@nd.edu
The General Interest Group is sponsoring two half day sessions for presentations that are more appropriate to the wider crystallographic community. If you feel your talk cannot or should not be pigeon-holed into a small molecule or a macromolecular session, this is the symposium for you. Only contributed abstracts will be considered.
Also see joint sessions: AW.02, 13.09
INDUSTRIAL SESSIONS
04.01 Impact of Crystallography in Industry
Organized by Rick Bott, rbott@Genencor.com, Jeff Ohren, Jeffrey.Ohren@Pfizer.com
This session will provide a platform for industrial crystallographers to share examples of how structural information helps their organizations maximize value. The presentations should focus on how structures: impacted projects, improved timelines, played a key role in go / no go decisions or helped to shape the boundaries of intellectual property. Talks will be solicited from selected abstracts to supplement the list of invited speakers with an eye towards covering the field of industrial crystallography and a broad range of industries in order to provide the audience as diverse a perspective as possible. The format is envisioned to consist of several 15-20 min presentations followed by a roundtable discussion led by the session chairs and Dave Matthews, co-founder of Agouron Pharmaceuticals.
Invited Speakers:
Barry Finzel, Pfizer Global Research & Development
John Barker, Evotec
Ping Chen, Pfizer Global Research & Development
Tim Rydel, Monsanto Company
Giovanna Scapin, Merck & Company
Also see joint sessions: 13.02, 13.05
MATERIALS SCIENCE SESSIONS
05.01 Non-Ambient Crystallography
Organized by Andrew Payzant, payzanta@ornl.gov
The focus of this session will be on crystallography of materials in non-ambient conditions including, but not limited to, temperature, pressure, and magnetic fields. Such experimental studies are increasingly utilized to provide a detailed understanding of phenomena such as materials synthesis, reaction kinetics, and structure-property relationships. The session will cover recent instrumentation advances, laboratory instruments, specialized large-scale facilities, as well as theoretical considerations and experimental results. Some speakers will be by invitation, and additional presentations may be chosen from submitted abstracts.
05.02 Mineralogy and Crystallography: Real Crystals, Extreme Conditions
Organized by Lee Groat, lgroat@eos.ubc.ca , Bryan Chakoumakos, chakoumakobc@ornl.gov
The ~5,000 known mineral species crystallize in even the most extreme environments, including the Earth's mantle (extreme pressures), acid rock drainage (negative pH), and the human body (stones). In addition, mineral structures exhibit varied complex behaviours, including solid solutions, complex chemistries, polymorphism, order-disorder, defects, modulations, and more. In this session we will explore the influence of extreme conditions on the crystallization and crystal structures of minerals.
Invited Speakers:
Bryan Chakoumakos, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN
Lee Groat, Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
George Lager, Univ. of Louisville, Louisville, KY
Ron Peterson, Queen's Univ., Kingston, Canada
Also see joint sessions: TR.01, 13.04, 13.06, 13.07
NEUTRON SCATTERING SESSIONS
06.01 Neutron Macromolecular Crystallography
Organized by Paul Langan, langan_paul@lanl.gov , Pappannan Thiyagarajan, thiyaga@anl.gov
A half-day session in which the latest results and new developments in this growing area of structural biology will be presented. Presentations will be chosen from submitted abstracts or will be by invitation.
Invited Speaker:
Julian C.-H. Chen, Goethe Univ. of Frankfurt, Germany
Also see joint sessions: TR.01, 13.02, 13.06
POWDER DIFFRACTION SESSIONS
07.01 SDPD (Structure Determination from Powder Diffraction): Getting Better and Better!
Organized by Ashfia Huq, ahuq@ornl.gov
Experience in a wide range of structural sciences indicates that polycrystalline materials (usually referred to as powder) can be considerably easier to prepare than single crystals of sufficient size for diffraction experiments. The drawback of such an approach of course is that the information contained in a powder diffraction pattern is intrinsically more limited since the three-dimensional intensity information of single crystal diffraction data is compressed to one dimension. With the availability of high resolution data from synchrotron and neutron sources and great advances in computational algorithms such as simulated annealing, Monte Carlo, genetic algorithms, etc., methods have been developed to solve increasingly complicated organic and inorganic structures using powder data. This session will cover the latest methodologies of ab initio structure solution from powder data and its application in industry such as pharmaceuticals and protein crystallography. Presentations for oral and poster sessions are solicited.
Invited Speakers:
Abraham Clearfield, Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX
Carmelo Giacovazzo, Institute of Crystallography, CNR, Bari, Italy
Chris Gilmore, Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland
William I.F. David, ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Lab, Didcot, UK
Jason P. Hodges, SNS, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN
James Kaduk, Innovene USA, LLC, Naperville, IL
Peter W. Stephens, SUNY Stony Brook, NY
Robert Von-Dreele, IPNS/APS, Argonne National Lab, Argonne, IL
Matthew Peterson, Transform Pharmaceutical (tentative)
Also see joint sessions: TR.01, 13.04, 13.06
SERVICE CRYSTALLOGRAPHY SESSIONS
08.00 See joint sessions: TR.01, AW.01, AW.02, 13.09
SMALL ANGLE SCATTERING SESSIONS
09.01 USAXS/USANS
Organized by Michael Agamalian, ilavsky@aps.anl.gov , Jan Ilavsky, magamalian@ornl.gov
This session is targeted at SAS studies of so called hierarchical structures in materials, which are getting more and more popular in the last decade. The advanced USAXS and the combined USANS/SANS techniques cover uniquely large Q-range offering an opportunity to probe, quantitatively, materials at wide range of length scales (from Angstroms up to ~10 micrometers), which is particularly important for contemporary technology and industry. The speakers are expected to cover both X-ray and neutron small-angle scattering studies of hierarchical structures observed in wide range of industrially important materials.
Invited Speakers:
Dale Schaefer, Univ. of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
Paul Butler, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
Govindarajan Muralidharan, Oak Ridge National Lab, Oak Ridge, TN
Andrew Allen, NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
09.02 Characterization of Surfaces and Interfaces
Organized by Byeongu Lee, blee@aps.anl.gov
In this half day SAS session, we are going to discuss the chemistry of bio or nanostructures at a surface or interface, such as self assemblies, interaction of molecules with surfaces, response to the external stimuli, and in-situ reactions, essentially using small scattering techniques like SAS, GISAS, and reflectivity but also other complementary techniques. Some speakers have been chosen though invitation, yet additional presentations may be chosen from submitted abstracts.
Invited Speakers:
Changyong Park, Argonne, National Lab, Argonne, IL
Randall E. Winans, Argonne National Lab, Argonne, IL
09.03 X-ray Imaging and Resonant Scattering
Organized by Rex Hjelm, hjelm@lanl.gov , Jeff Kortright, jbkortright@lbl.gov
New developments in soft x-ray anomalous (resonant) scattering and imaging promise important new insights into the structure of thin films of magnetic materials and of polymers and other soft materials using chemical and magnetic spectroscopic contrast. Analogous developments in the hard x-ray region have resulted in significant advances in the measurement of counter ion distributions around macro-ions and in determining structure of multi-component solid-state systems. At the same time imaging techniques for coherent x-rays have opened possibilities to produce 2 and 3-D images that here-to-for were not possible. This symposium is intended to present concepts behind these new developments and new science resulting from them. Topics to be covered include:
Introduction to resonant scattering in the soft x-ray range
Resonant scattering in magnetic systems
Resonant scattering in polymers
Resonant scattering from novel ordering in correlated materials
Coherent diffraction imaging
Tomographic imaging with zone plates
Scanning microscopy in polymers
Speckle/time correlation in soft x-ray
We solicit contributed papers covering these topics. (Time will be allocated to discuss proposals for new instrumentation that will be optimized for measurements using these techniques.)
Also see joint sessions: 13.03, 13.04, 13.07
SMALL MOLECULES SESSIONS
10.01 Important Science from Small Molecule Structures
Organized by Allen Oliver, alol1@berkeley.edu , Larry Falvello, falvello@unizar.es
These two half-day sessions will highlight small-molecule structure analyses in their scientific settings. Besides their well-known role as supplemental characterization in chemical and physical studies, small-molecule structure analyses by themselves or in conjunction with other structural, spectroscopic or computational studies can be central elements in important scientific results. Presentations on the whole gamut of such results -- small-molecule analyses that breached scientific impasses, multiple analyses for parametric studies, analyses that advanced the use of the technique, single-crystal and powder structures -- are all welcome.
Invited Speakers:
Bruce Foxman, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA
Joel Miller, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Chick Wilson, Univ. of Glasgow, Scotland
10.02 Tricks of the Trade: Interpretation of Structural Results
Organized by Paula Piccoli, ppiccoli@anl.gov
The careful interpretation and validation of structural results are vital steps prior to publication. This half-day session will feature a wide variety of topics and methods important to the study of molecular compounds. We welcome topics that are of theoretical and especially of practical interest. Presentations will be chosen both from abstracts and by invitation.
Invited Speakers:
Larry Falvello, Univ. of Zaragoza, Spain
Anthony Spek, Utrecht Univ., The Netherlands
Phillip Fanwick, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN
Victor Young, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
10.03 Supramolecular Chemistry
Organized by Kraig Wheeler, kawheeler@eiu.edu
Organizing molecular components into useful assemblies has matured from an area once viewed as emerging to a significant field of study recognized and embraced by the mainstream. Ongoing contributions vary from identifying new structurally diverse supramolecular synthons to the development and construction of innovative functional materials. Following on recent year's success, this year's symposium includes two half-day sessions that will follow the general theme of decoding the architectures and utility of supramolecular assemblies via crystallographic assessment. Topics such as non-covalent interactions, supramolecular assemblies and synthesis, polymorphism, crystal growth, and function and reactivity of engineered materials will be addressed. Presentations for oral and poster sessions are solicited.
Invited Speakers:
Christer Aakeröy, Kansas State Univ., Manhattan, KS
Len Barbour, Univ. of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Silas Blackstock, Univ. of Alabama, Toscaloosa, AL
Kenneth Doxsee, Univ. of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Bruce Foxman, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA
Bart Kahr, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA
John MacDonald, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA
10.04 Cool Structures
Organized by Allen Oliver, alol1@mindspring.com
A "Cool Structure" is anything ranging from, but not limited to, high Z' structures, interesting packing and bonding motifs, alternative and useful crystallization techniques and unusual and interesting structural features. In fact, anything that you may consider to be cool, neat or otherwise interesting crystallographically can be a "Cool Structure". If you are interested in presenting at this oral session please contact Allen Oliver.
Also see joint sessions: AW.02, TR.01, 13.09
SYNCHROTRON RADIATION SESSIONS
11.00 See joint sessions: 13.01, 13.02,13.08, 13.10
YOUNG SCIENTIST SESSIONS
12.01 FLYS – Fun Lectures for Young Scientists
Organized by Peter Horanyi, magyar@virginia.edu
The purpose of the Young Scientist SIG session is to provide a forum to address the needs and concerns of graduate students, postdoctoral scientists, and other scientists who are transitioning through various phases of their early careers. Topics such as academic and industrial job development/opportunity will be addressed. Any ACA member with expertise in these areas are highly encouraged to contact the session organizer to schedule a speaking opportunity.
Also see joint sessions: 13.01, AW.03
JOINT SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP SESSIONS
13.01 Advances in Data Collection
Young Scientist, Synchrotron Radiation
Organized by Aina Cohen, acohen@slac.stanford.edu, Steve Ginell, ginell@anl.gov
This session will cover topics of interest to the crystallographic community relating to new techniques and major advances in areas such as sample preparation, handling and mounting, data collection, spectroscopy, information transfer, robotics, instrumentation, remote beam line communication, and data processing. Emphasis will be on education with the goal of training others to try these new methods. Presentations from individuals within the crystallographic community and others outside the field will be considered. Oral Presentations will be chosen from submitted abstracts and from invited speakers.
13.02 Detectors
Synchrotron Radiation, Industrial, Neutron Scattering, Fiber Diffraction
Organized by Thomas Earnest, tnearnest@lbl.gov, Chris Nielsen, cn@adsc-xray.com
Technological advances in detectors have played a critical role in the evolution and success of structural biology - from film through imaging plates to the current generation of CCD-based detectors which now dominate, especially at synchrotron sources. This session will present a range of current and next-generation technologies, such as pixel array detectors, as well approaches that allow for their optimal utilization for the collection of high-quality data.
Invited Speakers:
Mark Tate, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY
Gerard Bricogne, Global Phasing, Cambridge, UK
13.03 Biomacromolecular Assemblies and Biomembranes
Small-Angle Scattering Biological Macromolecules
Organized by William T. Heller, hellerwt@ornl.gov, Thomas Weiss, weiss@slac.stanford.edu
Small-angle scattering (SAS) is a well-established technique for studying the structure and dynamics of partially ordered and disordered nano-scale systems. Recently, with advances in instrumentation and data analysis methods, SAS has rapidly gained an important role in elucidating the structure and dynamics of large biomolecular assemblies such as protein complexes and biomembranes. The technique allows the investigation of these systems in near physiological environments with minimal sample preparation and the analysis of structural changes in response to variations of external conditions. This session will focus on the application of SAS to large biomolecular assemblies and biomembranes, as well as highlight methodological developments of biological SAS.
Invited Speakers:
B.T. Nixon, PennState Univ., University Park, PA
J.K. Krueger, Univ. North Carolina at Charlotte
H.W. Huang, Rice Univ., Houston, TX
J.G. Grossmann, Daresbury Laboratory, Cheshire, UK
S. Krueger, NCNR/NIST, Gaithersburg, MD
J. Lipfert, Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA
13.04 Time and Field Dependent Responses in Scattering Experiments
Small Angle Scattering, Materials
Organized by Volker Urban, urbanvs@ornl.gov, Lionel Porcar, lionel.porcar@nist.gov, Claudia Rawn, rawncj@ornl.gov
Neutrons and X-rays advance our understanding of materials through the determination of their structures at various length scales, from atomic scales to micrometers. Advanced, high-flux neutron and X-ray sources and instruments allow in situ, time-resolved measurements of structural changes as well as field-induced orientational order in materials that respond to external parameters such as pressure, temperature, magnetic, electric or mechanical forces. This session will highlight the diversity of scientific studies that are enabled by time and field dependent X-ray and neutron scattering experiments and will provide a forum to discuss opportunities for scientific applications and challenges in the development of instruments for in situ, time-resolved measurements.
Invited Speakers:
Wim Pyckhout-Hintzen, FZ-Juelich, Germany
Charles Dewhurst, ILL, Grenoble, France
Tom Mason, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
Matthew Kramer, Iowa State, Ames, IA
Jim Richardson, IPNS, Argonne National Lab, Argonne, IL
Jon Hanson, NSLS, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY
13.05 Structural Mechanisms of Infectious Disease
Biological Macromolecules, Industrial
Organized by Theadore Jardetsky, tedj@northwestern.umassmed.edu, Dave Mathews, davem2@cox.net
Infectious diseases account for significant human mortality and morbidity worldwide. In addition, the global economy loses billions of dollars each year from infectious diseases affecting crops and livestock. Infectious agents are diverse and dynamic. New diseases and novel variants continue to emerge and increasingly there are examples of resistance to current treatments. Structural studies can play an important role in understanding how infectious agents gain entry to host organisms, how they reproduce and evolve, the mechanistic strategies of host defense and the effects of known drugs on both the host and target pathogen. Structures are also increasingly being used to inform and guide drug discovery efforts against a wide range of infectious agents. This session will highlight examples of how macromolecular structural information is providing mechanistic insights that lead to better understanding of infectious diseases and associated therapeutic approaches. Talks will be solicited from invited speakers and from selected abstracts.
13.06 Energy Storage and Conversion
Materials, Neutron, Powder
Organized by Jacques Huot, Jacques.Huot@uqtr.ca
This session will focus on the synthesis and characterization of materials for energy storage and conversion. A special emphasis will be on hydrogen technologies. Various types of materials will be discussed such as: metal hydrides, complex hydrides, metallo-organic frameworks, and composites. New means of synthesis and their impact on final crystal structure will be discussed. Recent development in lithium batteries will be presented. Speakers having a broad range of approach for synthesis and characterization of new materials are welcome. Presentation for oral and poster sessions are solicited.
13.07 Nanostructures
Small Angle Scattering, Materials
Organized by Kevin Littrell, littrellkc@nornl.gov and Jin Wang, wangi@aps.anl.gov
Synthesizing complex nanocomposites and superstructures is of great interest in biology, chemistry, physics and engineering applications such as the fabrication of novel electronic, magnetic, and photonic devices. More specifically, the fabrication of structures with length scales on the order of nanometers is of critical importance to the design of ever-smaller and ever-faster electronics, the development of biocompatible materials for medical use, and the creation of composite materials or surface treatments with novel physical properties. Furthermore, the machinery of life in biological systems—proteins, nucleic acids, lipid membranes and carbohydrate networks—are comprised of finely-tuned nanostructure assemblies. In the nanometer regime the effects of long-range ordering are still emerging, thus the physical properties of nanostructured materials can be vastly different from those of bulk materials in many ways that are sensitively dependent on the size, shape, surface structure, and composition variability within the structures. This session is devoted to highlighting recent developments in techniques for the creation, directed-and self-assembly, and characterization of the kinetics and dynamics during the formation of the nanostructured materials and the elucidation of the relationship between the structure and function in these materials. Presentations will be chosen from the submitted abstracts or by invitation.
13.08 Micro-Crystals, Micro-Beams, and Multiple Crystals
Biological Macromolecules, Synchrotron Radiation
Organized by Gerd Rosenbaum, rosenbaum@anl.gov, Richard Gillilan, reg8@cornell.edu
The aim of the session is to give crystallographers an account of the present state and experience with macromolecular microcrystallography at synchrotron radiation beamlines. The session will cover three topics: (i) x-ray optics for microfocused beams, (ii) endstation instrumentation for microcrystals and data acquisition and processing methods for multiple crystals, and (iii) scientific advances made possible with microcrystals. X-ray optics will cover methods of focusing high flux beams to focal sizes of 2-15 µm on the sample, beam stabilization, and reduction of instrumental scatter background. The 2nd topic, endstation instrumentation, will cover recognition of micrometer size samples and centering them to the microfocused beam, goniostat stability, reduction of scatter, and detectors with high detective quantum efficiency at very small intensities of diffraction peaks. Also invited are reports on improved software to efficiently achieve high completeness with the minimum number of multiple crystals, radiation damage compensation, and merging data from multiple crystals into a complete data sets. The 3rd topic, scientific advances with microcrystals, will cover scientific advances which were possible only with microcrystals, either because larger crystals were not obtainable even with great effort, or larger crystals didn't have the diffractive quality to solve the structure.
13.09 Teaching Gadgets and Educational Tools
Small Molecules, Service Crystallography, General Interest
Organized by Peter Müller, pmueller@mit.edu
Papers are invited pertaining to gadgets, contraptions, toys or tools of any kind, designed to facilitate the teaching of crystallography. This could be anything from wooden models to educational computer animations. If, for example, you have a model kit to explain twinning or a toy-diffractometer or anything else that will help to teach crystallography, this is the place to show it to your fellow teachers. For this session, the otherwise strict “One-Scientist-One-Abstract dogma” has been lifted. This makes it possible for speakers at the teaching session to present an additional talk or poster at the ACA meeting 2007.
Invited Speakers:
Wally Cordes, Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK
Jenny Glusker, Fox Chase Center, Philadelphia, PA
Henk Schenk, Univ. of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
13.10 Radiation Damage
Biological Macromolecules, Synchrotron Radiation
Organized by James Holton, JMHolton@lbl.gov
In a world where we continue to push the limits of small samples and bright beams, radiation damage will continue to be the limiting factor in the success or failure of structure determination. Cooling samples to cryogenic temperatures is a well-known technique to reduce the effects of radiation damage, but what other measures can be taken? How can you detect when radiation damage has become significant? Is there any way to predict how long your crystal will last in th beam? How will radiation-induced modifications of your molecule impact your interpretation of the structure? How can you use the effects of radiation damage to help you solve your structure? The speakers in this session will strive to answer these questions for you.