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AsCA’06/CrSJ

Epochal Tukuba, Japan, November 2006

[Mt Tsukuba] Mount Tsukuba
The Joint Conference of the Asian Crystallographic Assn and the Crystallographic Society of Japan (AsCA’06/CrSJ) featured four Keynote lectures, eighteen microsymposia, and 331 poster presentations within a well balanced program covering all areas of crystallography.
[M. Vijayan] M. Vijayan (President of AsCA)
Keynote lectures: S. Kitagawa (Japan): Crystal and Functional Engineering for Unique Microporous Materials; Zihe Rao (China): Structural insights into SARS coronavirus proteins. S. Iwata (UK): Towards structure determination of human membrane proteins; and C. Howard (Australia): Structures and phase transitions in perovskites - sorting out the subtleties.

Microsymposia covered the following topics: Structural genomics and high-throughput crystallography, Crystal engineering and supramolecular chemistry, Advances in powder diffraction, Macromolecular assemblies: protein/DNA/RNA, Inelastic X-ray scattering, Computational developments - SAD phasing, refinement, model building, validation, Materials science, Advancements in small angle X-ray scattering, Protein crystallization & post-crystal treatments - new tricks & tools, Magnetic structures, Electronic structure and bonding by X-ray diffraction, CBED, EELS, EXAFS, Membrane and membrane-associated proteins, Atomic resolution structure of biological macromolecules, X-ray and neutron scattering of strongly correlated electron systems, Cool structures, Nanotechnology: surface and interface, Disease related proteins, Dynamic aspects of molecular crystals.

[AsCA posters]Poster session
Three poster prizes sponsored by the IUCr, the RCSB PDB and CrSJ were awarded to young scientists: There was also a pre-meeting satellite on Theoretical Crystallography and Materials Science organized by The IUCr MaThCryst commission in cooperation with the IUCr Commission on Inorganic and Mineral Structures.

[Wadaiko drums] Participants of the AsCA'06 are trying to play Japanese drums (wadaiko) during the banquet.
The next AsCA meeting will be held in Taipei in Taiwan R.O.C, November 4-7, 2007 (www.asca2007.tw).
Akiko Sekine