SIG1 endeavours to unite and support the large and growing community of macromolecular crystallographers throughout Europe. This is currently a dynamic field with a continually high impact to science in general.
Title: EMBO’07 – A course on Exploiting Anomalous Scattering in Macromolecular Structure Determination, EMBL, Grenoble, France, June 18-22, 2007.
Description: This practical course addressed young scientists who intend to apply single- and multiple-wavelength anomalous scattering (SAD & MAD) methods in macromolecular structure determination.
Title: EMBO Workshop on Integrated Approaches in Structural Enzymology – ‘The chemistry and biochemistry of catalysis by biological systems’ EMBL Hamburg, June 20 – 22, 2007.
Organizers: A. Schmidt, R. Wierenga, A. Mattevi, V. Lamzin, H. Oshkinat, J. Lewis.
Description: The aim of this workshop was to discuss the continuously developing means for in-depth investigations of biocatalysts. Specific emphasis was given to the use of structural information from X-ray crystallography and complementary techniques for the elucidation of structure function relationships of biocatalysts.
Sponsors: AstraZeneca, BBSRC, British Biophysical Society, Canon Foundation, Daresbury Laboratory, Diamond, GlaxoSmithKline, Liverpool John Moores University, MRC, ProteinCrystallography.com, Manchester Metropolitan University, Marresearch, Nature, Science, Shimadzu, University of Liverpool, Wellcome trust.
Description: The meeting will address the latest advances in structural genomics, multiprotein complexes, structure based drug design, membrane proteins, metallo proteins, biological spectroscopy (CD, IR, etc), non-crystalline diffraction, XAFS, imaging, instrumentation, computational biology and radiation damage.
Description: The meeting focussed on the current understanding of molecular principles underlying major human diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases and diabetes from a structural point of view.
Description: HSC6 allowed scientists interested in structure in biology to gain experience in state of the art synchrotron techniques.
Title: 10 th Heart of Europe Meeting on Bio-Crystallography, Bedlewo, Poland, Sept 27-29, 2007.
This meeting provides a platform for the discussion of macromolecular crystallography in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Earstern Germany.
Title: 20th Annual User Meeting and the workshop Science at MAX IV, Lund, Sweden, October 30 – November 2, 2007.
Sponsors: Marresearch, Novo Nordisk AstraZeneca MAX-lab.
Description: “#000000”>The course is aimed at PhD students and postdocs from Scandinavia and northern Europe with limited experience of MAD and SAD methods but with basic knowledge of crystallography (i.e. this is not a full macromolecular crystallography course).
Title: Training in methods for Macromolecular Crystallography, M2M-7: From Measurement to Model, EMBL Hamburg Outstation, Germany, November 21 – 28, 2007.
Organizers: V. Lamzin, S. Panjikar, P.A. Tucker, M. Weiss.
Description: The course included beamline practicals, computational tutorials and/or lectures on beamline hardware, crystal handling, data collection and processing, model validation, phasing and phase improvement, model building and refinement.
Title: 6 th NCCR practical course on biomolecular modelling, Kandersteg, Switzerland, January 6 – 11, 2008.
Description: The 6th NCCR Practical Course covered key topics in the area of computational structural biology. The course format included morning lectures by experts in the field that alternated with later afternoon to evening tutorials and discussions.
Title: 5 th International Workshop on X-ray Damage to Biological Crystalline Samples, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland March 3-5, 2008.
Description: This series of workshops was originally concerned with the effects of radiation damage during investigation of protein structures by X-ray crystallography. Other techniques of structural biology are now being included to ensure greater information exchange.
Title: Symposium “Synchrotrons and Lasers for Structural Systems Biology” and BIOXHIT 4th annual meeting, EMBL, Hamburg, Germany, April 16, 2008.
Organizers: G. Bricogne, K. Henrick, V. Lamzin, S. Larsen, S. McSweeney, C. Nave, A. Perrakis, M. Weiss.
Description: The topics covered crystallisation technology, synchrotron beamlines, beamline endstations and data collection, data processing and structure determination, databases and networking, training, implementation and dissemination.
Various workshops and meetings are currently being organized inter alia by members of SIG1.
The annual meeting of SIG1 took place at the ECM24 in Marrakech, Morocco. Because the previous Chair of SIG1, Prof. Maria Arménia Carrodo was unable to continue in this position due to other commitments this position had to be re-filled. Prof. Keith Wilson was elected as the new Chair for the next three years. The next meeting of SIG1 will be at the ECM25 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey, where the positions of SIG1 vice-chair and secretary will come up for election.
The main activity of SIG1 involves the organization of the microsymposia and keynote speakers for the individual European crystallographic meetings. The aim is to offer a wide variety of topics to structural biologists with a view to increasing the attendance of our current and potential members at the annual meetings.
In addition individual members participate in organizing workshops and conferences of interest to European structural biologists.
SIG1 currently has 65 registered members, while annual meetings are normally attended by 20 to 30 individuals. As there is no assignment of registered ECA members to any SIG, SIG1 conversely does not check that SIG1 members are actually ECA members. The current overlap is unknown.
Title: 8th International School on the Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules, Como, Italy, May 21-25, 2006.
Sponsors: MAXINF2, Merck, Jena BioScience, Hamilton, Molecular Dimensions, Tecan, BIOXHIT, fluidigm, accelrys, Qiagen.
Description: The school focuses on the application of X-ray crystallographic methods to the study of biological macromolecules, with emphasis on the latest developments. The programme includes lectures on protein expression and purification, crystallization, data collection and processing, synchrotron sources, phasing, phase improvement, model building, refinement and analysis of structural data.
Title: Workshop on Experimental Phasing of Macromolecules, Göttingen, Germany, Sept 7-14, 2006.
This workshop continues the tradition of SHELX workshops in Göttingen with the emphasis this time on solving macromolecular structures by MAD, SAD, SIRAS, RIP and ab initio methods.
Title: 9. Heart of Europe Meeting on Bio-Crystallography, Teistungenburg, Germany, Sept 25-27, 2006.
This meeting provides a platform for the discussion of macromolecular crystallography in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Eastern Germany.
Title: BioCrys2006: Fundamentals of Modern Methods in Biocrystallography, Oeiras, Portugal, October 6-13, 2006.
Description: The course focused on Macromolecular Crystallography, by developing the fundamental concepts of Crystallography and illustrate these by tutorial and practical sessions.
Title: HSC2: Structural Genomics, Grenoble, France, October 6-13, 2006.
Sponsors: Marie Curie Actions, Universite Joseph Fourier, INP Grenoble, ESRF, ILL, EU, Medical Research Council.
Description: High throughput techniques for protein expression, purification and nano-scale crystallisation have emerged and concurrently with this, more and smaller crystals are increasingly brought to the synchrotron..
Title: CCP4 Study Weekend, Reading, United Kingdom, January 4-6, 2006.
Description: Introduction to CCP4 software package with special emphasis on recently added/updated software.
Title: CCP4/MaxInf Workshop, York, United Kingdom, April 10-15, 2007.
Title: Biophysics of ligand binding to drug targets, Illkirch, France, May 14-15, 2007.
Description: Combining biophysical approaches to detect, measure and model the ligands binding to drug targets.
Title: SBNET – Swedish Structural Biology Net Meeting, Tällberg, Sweden, June 15-18, 2007.
Sponsors: MicroCal, Evitra, SGC, AstraZeneca, SBNET, Karolinska Institutet, Bruker.
Description: Structural Biology in Sweden.
Description: The meeting will focus on the current understanding of molecular principles underlying major human diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases and diabetes from a structural point of view.
and phasing of S-SAD diffraction data from crystals of macromolecules aimed at obtaining the best possible interpretable map prior to model building.
Title: 4th International PhD Student Symposium, Göttingen Germany, Sept. 12-15, 2007.
Sponsors: Merck, Miltenyi Biotec, Ewald Innovationsbiologie, Fermentas, Sarstedt.
Description: HSC6 will allow scientists interested in structure in biology to gain experience in state of the art synchrotron techniques.
Title: 6TH NCCR Practical course on biomolecular modelling, Kandersteg, Switzerland, January 6 – 11, 2008.
Description: This course is directed to PhD students and postdocs from experimental structural biology groups wishing to learn more on biomolecular modelling.
Due to other commitments, Prof. Maria Arménia Corrondo, the current Chairperson of SIG1, has decided to step down from this position as of September 2007. SIG1 will therefore elect a new chair at its annual meeting on August 26, 2007 during the ECM24 in Marrakech, Morocco.
The term of Anders Liljas (chair) and Michael Kokkinidis (Vice-chair) will end August 8, 2006 (see below).
SIG1 sees its major responsibility in organizing up-to-the-minute micro-symposia for the ECA annual meetings. It has actively supported the organizers of the ECM 23 in Leuven as regards the biological microsymposia. Members of the SIG are involved as chairs or co-chairs with the meeting in Leuven.
The annual meeting of SIG1 generally coincides with the ECM or IUCr meetings. This yearfs meeting will take place during the lunch-time break on August 8 at the ECM in Leuven. Lunch will be provided – kindly sponsored by Molecular Dimensions.
The term of office (3 years) of the chair, Anders Liljas and the vice chair, Michael Kokkinidis will end as of this day. Anders Liljas has decided not to stand again, while Michael would be happy to continue as vice-chair. SIG1 will therefore need to fill both positions during its annual meeting.
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. As an important source of funding for these activities, MAXINF2 started on December 1, 2004 (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
Murnau conference on Structural Biology. September 15–17, 2005, Murnau (Germany).
1st ESF and MAXINF2 Course on Membrane Proteins, Oeiras, (Portugal) September 19-26, 2005.
8th Heart of Europe Bio-Crystallography Meeting, Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic) September 29 – October 1, 2005.
M2M-05: From Measurement to Model, Hamburg, (Germany) November 9, 2005.
8th International School on the Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules, Como (Italy) May 21-25, 2006, Funded by MaxInf2.
SHELX MAXINF Workshop on experimental phasing of Macromolecules, Göttingen (Germany) September 7-14, 2006.
The First African Structural Biology Conference, The Wilderness (South Africa), October 24-27, 2006.
In a meeting held at ECM22 in Budapest, Thomas Schneider resigned from the Secretary position. Wolf-Dieter Schubert (German Research Center for Biotechnology, Braunschweig, Germany) was elected Secretary for the next three years.
The major responsibility of this SIG is to organise up-to-the-minute micro-symposia for the ECA annual meetings. Because there is an IUCr meeting in 2005, and hence no ECM, there has been no need for us to actively organise a program. However, many members of the SIG have contributed as chairs or co-chairs to the Florence IUCr meeting.
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. As an important source of funding for these activities, MAXINF2 started on December 1, 2004. The main sources of funding in the reporting period were MAX-INF and MAX-INF2 (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
Workshop eFrontiers and Challenges in Structural Biologyf, Hamburg, Germany, September 15-18, 2004. Organized by M. Bolognesi (Genova), S. Cusack (Grenoble), V. Lamzin (Hamburg), J. Sussman (Rehovot), E. Weckert (Hamburg), M. Wilmanns (Hamburg). Supported by EMBO, ESBF, SPINE, BIOXHIT.
Workshop eStructural Proteomicsf, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, October 16-19, 2004. Organized by Eileen Furlong (EMBL, Heidelberg) and Naama Barkai (Rehovot). Supported by ESBF, EMBO/EMBL.
Course eFundamentals of modern methods in biocrystallographyf, BioCrys2004, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal, November 19-26, 2004. Organized by Maria Armenia Carrondo (ITQB Oeiras, Portugal) and Thomas R. Schneider (FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology). Funded by MAX-INF.
Workshop on eEvolving methods in macromolecular crystallographyf, Erice, Italy, May 12-22, 2005. Organized by Randy J. Read (Cambridge) and Joel Sussman (Rehovot). Supported by IUCr, EU.
Practical course in eExploiting anomalous scattering in macromolecular structure deter­mination, ESRF & EMBL Outstation, Grenoble, France, June 15-21, 2005, Organized by W. Shephard, D. Nurizzo, U. Ramseger (ESRF), H. Berhali (EMBL), J.-L. Ferrer (CEA), A. Labrador (CELLS), M. Walsh (MRC). Funded by MAX-INF2 and EMBO.
Course eMembrane Proteins – the rocky road from gene to structuref, at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal. September 19-24, 2005. Organized by Margarida Archer and So Iwata. Supported by ESF, IUCr and MAX-INF.
Murnau Conference on eStructural Biology of Molecular Recognitionf, Murnau, Germany, September 15-17, 2005, Organized by Dirk W. Heinz (Braunschweig), Ulrich Wendt (Frankfurt), Manfred Weiss (Hamburg).
We would like to ask all members of the MCSIG to check that they have actually paid their ECA membership dues. The ECA needs the small income from this source to remain operational.
Suggestions for topics for the ECM22 were collected during the meeting of the MC-SIG at ECM21 Durban. Subsequently, the MC-SIG has been heavily involved in the definition of the programme of ECM22 in Budapest. With important help from Vilmos Fulop and in close collaboration with the Programme Committee, eight Microsymposia and two Plenary lectures were organized.
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. The main sources of funding were MAX-INF (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
SHELX Workshop. University of G?ttingen (Germany). Sep 18-23, 2003. Organized by George M. Sheldrick and Thomas R. Schneider (both University of G?ttingen). Funded by MAX-INF.
Workshop on ‘Validation of Macromolecular Structures and Structure Determination Steps’ at ELLETRA (Trieste, Italy). December 1, 2003. Organized by Kristina Djinovic. Funded by ESBF.
CCP4 Study Weekend on Model Building and Refinement at The University of Leeds (U.K.). January 4-5, 2003. Organized by Martin Noble (University of Oxford) and Anastassis Perrakis (NKI, The Netherlands). Funded by CCP4 and MAX-INF.
2nd MAX-INF Integration workshop. March 5-6, 2004. Lund University, Sweden. Organized by Marjolein Thunnissen, Lund. Funded by MAX-INF.
MAX-INF Workshop on phasing and refinement at CESCA IBMB Barcelona (Spain). March 18-23, 2004. Organized by Isabel Us?n (IBMB Barcelon) and Garib Murshudov (York University, U.K.). Funded by MAX-INF.
High Resolution Drug Design Meeting in Bischenberg (France). May 13-16, 2004. Organized by Alberto Podjarny (IGMBC, CNRS, Illkirch, France). Funded by MAX-INF.
A day on high throughput methods for structural biology at the Tropeninstitut Amsterdam (The Netherlands). June 2, 2004. Organized by David Egan and Anastassis Perrakis (NKI, The Netherlands).
Conference ‘Structural Biology at Crossroads’ at EMBL Hamburg, Germany. 15-18 September 2004. Funded by EMBO, SPINE, BIOXHIT, ESBF.
Workshop on ‘Comparison of Structural Information from NMR spectroscopy and crystallography’ at Frankfurt University, 12-14 November, 2004. Organized by Heinz Rueterjans. Funded by ESBF.
Course on “Fundamentals of modern methods in biocrystallography” at Instituto de Tecnologia Qu?mica e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal. 19-26 November 2004. Organized by Maria Armenia Carrondo (ITQB Oeiras, Portugal) and Thomas R. Schneider (IFOM, Milano, ITaly). Funded by MAX-INF, SPINE, and IUCr.
We would like to ask all members of the MCSIG to check that they have actually paid their ECA membership dues. The ECA needs the small income from this source to remain operational. To register, go to: http://www.ecanews.org -> Membership/Registration, to pay, go to: http://www.xray.cz/eca/invoice.htm.
The MC-SIG has been heavily involved in the definition of the programme of ECM21 in Durban. In close collaboration with the Programme Committee, ten Microsymposia and two Plenary lectures were organized.
Integration Workshop at PSI Villigen (Switzerland). August 16-17, 2003. Organized by Clemens Schulze-Briese (PSI, Switzerland). Funded by MAX-INF.
ISGO Workshop “Automation of X-ray Structure Determination for Structural Genomics” at BESSY II, Berlin (Germany). October 8-9, 2002. Organized by Victor Lamzin (EMBL-Hamburg, Germany), Uwe Mueller (BESSY, Germany), Tom Terwilliger (Los Alamos, USA). Funded by MAX-INF.
Data Collection Course at MRC Cambridge (U.K.). December 2-6, 2002. Organized by Phil Evans and Andrew Leslie (both MRC Cambridge, U.K.). Funded by MAX-INF.
Course on “Fundamentals of modern methods in biocrystallography”, BioCrys2002. at Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Oeiras, Portugal. 10-19 October 2002. Organized by Maria Armenia Carrondo (ITQB Oeiras, Portugal) and Thomas R. Schneider (University of G?tingen, Germany). Funded by MAX-INF and the the EU Human Potential High-Level Scientific Conference Programme.
CCP4 Study Weekend on Experimental Phasing at York University (U.K.). January 3-4, 2003. Organized by Neil McDonald (Cancer Research, UK), Airlie McCoy (Cambridge, UK). Funded by CCP4 and MAX-INF.
Winter workshop on phasing with soft X-rays in Bressanone (Italy). February 25-27, 2003. Organized by Kristina Djinovic Carugo (ELLETRA, Italy). Funded by ESBF.
Seventh International School on the Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules in Como (Italy), May 10-14, 2003. Organized by Keith Wilson (York University, U.K.) and Kristina Djinovic Carugo (ELLETRA, Italy). Funded by MAX-INF.
Workshop on “Current trends in structure-aided drug design” in Lund (Sweden). May 22-24, 2003. Organized by Salam Al-Karadaghi (Lund University, Sweden). Funded by ESBF and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
EMBO course on Structure Determination using 3 rd Generation Synchrotrons at ESRF Grenoble (France). June 17-25, 2003. Organized by Raimond Ravelli (ESRF, France). Funded by EMBO and MAX-INF.
SHELX Workshop. University of G?tingen (Germany). Sep 18-23, 2003. Organized by George M. Sheldrick and Thomas R. Schneider (both University of G?tingen). Funded by MAX-INF.
Aminoff symposium in connection with the Aminoff prize to Axel Br?nger, Stanford, and Alwyn, Jones, Uppsala. Royal Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. September 11-12, 2003. Organized by Anders Liljas (University of Lund). Funded by the Royal Academy.
As the MAX-INF grant has been extremely useful for supporting the workshop activities, a follow-up project (MAX-INF2) is coordinated by Marjolein Thunissen (University of Lund, Sweden). The grant application was submitted to the European Union in April 2003.
A Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland).
to the Geneva IUCr meeting.
The European macro-molecular community has organised a series of workshops and discussion meetings. This has been greatly helped by specific EU funding for MAXINF, a training program coordinated by Dr Colin Nave of Daresbury Laboratory. Other important sources of funding included EMBO and CCP4.
January 2002, University of York, U.K.
April 2002, University of York, U.K.
Participation in the MAXINF EU network, which is funded to organise courses, workshops and short exchange visits for those working in Macromolecular Crystallography in Europe.
(Poznan), Marek Brozozowski (York), and Krzysztof Lewinski (Krakow).As described in last years report, during the MCSIG meeting in August 1999in Glasgow, a strong point of debate was centred on devising ways of getting funds to organise meetings, such as the Como meeting and also the continuing existence of satellite meetings associated to ECMs. This idea was later formalised and extended to other activities such as teaching and integrating (university research-industry) workshops and methods-based schools and was presented in the form of a network to the European Union. This network is coordinated from Daresbury, currently by Colin Nave, and integrated representatives from synchrotron sites, university software and research groups, pharmaceutical companies and equipment manufacturers. Among the participants there were many MCSIG members. This network was funded from the end of 2000. It has already supported the May 2001 meeting in Como for about 180 people, and a collaborative workshop on synchrotron data collection software between the ESRF, SRS and Cambridge. Two more COMO meetings are planned. The MAXINF network has also supported EU participants attendance at a data collection workshop at Daresbury and a MAD workshop at ESRF. Most importantly for the ECA, MAXINF was able to provide funding of 20 KEuros for the Krynica satellite meeting. It should be noted that the MCSIG has now been running for three years. At the Krakow meeting, it is therefore appropriate to have elections for replacements of at least one of the current offices of the MCSIG.