Advances in experimental phasing

The proceedings of the 2015 CCP4 Study Weekend on Advances in Experimental Phasing, held on January 8-9, 2015, at the U. of Nottingham, UK, have been published in the March 2016 issue of Acta Crystallographica Section D, Structural Biology.

Crystallographic phasing using experimental approaches remains an important, and often the only successful, route for solving crystal structures, especially for structures with novel folds. These are often large and complex assemblies diffracting to limited resolution, but also those likely to provide the most novel biological insights. Speakers from academia and several synchrotron facilities were invited to cover both practical aspects, such as sample preparation and data collection strategies, and computational aspects, relating to the analysis and use of diffraction data from derivatized or anomalously scattering crystals. A session on radiation damage was included to remind experimentalists of the unavoidable side effects of using X-rays for diffraction data collection, while a final session on evolving methods provided a forum for ideas for (perhaps) solving the phase problem employing unconventional approaches.

The Guest Editors, Charles Ballard, Airlie McCoy and Thomas Schneider, hope that the speakers' papers will inspire young and seasoned crystallographers alike. The issue is open access at http://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2016/03/00/.