(IUCr) Research news

Special issue on electron crystallography

Special issue on mineralogical crystallography

Special issue on Polyoxometalates

The importance of careful refinement

Simulating cold aqueous environments on Earth and other planetary bodies

Ptychograph image resolution

Hydrophobic dipeptides: the final piece in the puzzle

Advanced neutron scattering instrumentation

Weak interactions in crystals: an integrated approach

Publication guidelines for biomolecular small-angle scattering

Small-angle scattering continues to increase in popularity for structure biology studies. The technique can provide structural information that is both accurate and precise and, especially when used in combination with other complementary data, of considerable value for studying individual molecules, complexes and assemblies.

GigaFRoST: the gigabit fast readout system for tomography

A thorough understanding of dynamic processes in areas as diverse as biomechanics, materials science miniature engineering, and energy research relies on our ability to observe structural changes of materials in three-dimensional detail at high speeds.

Protein microcrystallography using synchrotron radiation

The progress in X-ray microbeam applications using synchrotron radiation is beneficial to structure determination from macromolecular microcrystals such as small in meso crystals.

IUCr bursary case study:Structural and biological study of tin-based complexes against enzymes that propagate cancer

Cisplatin and its subsequent clinical success generated interest in researchers with regards to the use of metal complexes as anticancer drugs. Cisplatin still plays a major role in treating over 90% of testicular cancer cases and is now one of the most successful anticancer drugs available on the market.

A tribute to Professor Philip Coppens

This special issue is dedicated to a lifetime of outstanding scientific achievements by Professor Philip Coppens. Originally a tribute to his recent retirement, this collection of papers – approved by Philip – was submitted by former students, postdocs, close friends and collaborators of Philip.

Quality assurance in microbeam radiation therapy

Microbeam radiation therapy (MRT) is an innovative preclinical radiotherapy procedure consisting of many micrometre-sized spatially fractionated radiation fields, obtained by collimating a beam of synchrotron radiation with a multi-slit collimator.

Preclinical radiotherapy at the Australian Synchrotron Imaging and Medical Beamline

Therapeutic applications of synchrotron X-rays such as microbeam (MRT) and minibeam (MBRT) radiation therapy promise significant advantages over conventional clinical techniques for some diseases if successfully transferred to clinical practice.

Pioneering X-ray technique to analyse ancient artefacts

A pioneering X-ray technique that can analyse artefacts of any shape or texture in a non-destructive way has been developed by an international team of scientists.

Protein crystallography and drug discovery: recollections of knowledge exchange between academia and industry

In this review IUCrJ. (2017), 4, 308-321 on the occasion of the award of the 2017 Ewald Prize by the IUCr, I present a personal view of the relationship between academia and industry in the development of structure-guided drug discovery.

Introducing the Proceedings of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium

The Proceedings of the CCP-EM Spring Symposium have been published in Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology http://journals.iucr.org/d/issues/2017/06/00/index.html. The symposium is an annual conference which aims to review and highlight state-of-the-art developments in macromolecular cyro-electron microscopy in an accessible and convivial manner.

A large-solid-angle X-ray Raman scattering spectrometer

S. Huotari and co-workers J.Sync. Rad. (2017), 24, 521-530 describe an end-station for X-ray Raman spectroscopy at beamline ID20 of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The end-station is dedicated to the study of shallow core electronic excitations using non-resonant inelastic X-ray scattering.

In-cell NMR: a topical review

In-cell NMR has emerged in the past decade as a unique approach to obtain structural and functional information on biological macromolecules within living cells at atomic resolution.

NMR Crystallography

David Bryce and Francis Taulelle introduce a special issue of Acta Crystallographica Section C on NMR Crystallography where the contributions serve as an excellent introduction to the power and scope of NMR crystallographic methods and applications.

Crystal structure prediction: A special issue

This special issue in Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials showcases recent work in the area of crystal structure prediction (CSP). The prediction of crystal structures of organic molecules continues to attract considerable interest; the problem is fundamentally attractive for theoreticians and computational scientists, and the methods developed in this area have an important role to play in the development of molecular materials.

X-ray radiation damage to biological macromolecules: further insights

There are eight papers on various aspects of radiation damage in the latest issue of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation. The studies reported on macromolecular crystallography (MX) and small-angle scattering (SAXS) experiments were presented at the 9^th International Workshop on Radiation Damage to Biological Crystalline Samples

Small-angle scattering

A fully open-access virtual special edition of Journal of Applied Crystallography publishes work that provides insights into ongoing developments in the field of small-angle neutron and X-ray scattering (SANS and SAXS) covering different areas of fundamental and applied research.

Quantifying radiation damage in SAXS experiments

Biological small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is an experimental technique that provides low-resolution structural information on macromolecules.

Microseeding: a new way to overcome hemihedral twinning?

Twinning, which is a known problem in protein crystallography, usually hampers high-quality crystal structure determination unless it is detected and either avoided or corrected.

A step to understanding polymorphs

In a paper published in Acta Cryst. B, (2016), doi: 10.1107/S2052520616017297 Carol Brock of the University of Kentucky looks at some of the organizing principles behind crystal structures with high Z’.This study lies at the very heart of understanding and being able to control properties of molecular structures.

Why keep the raw data?

The increasingly popular subject of raw diffraction data deposition is examined in a Topical Review in IUCrJ [Kroon-Batenburg, Helliwell, McMahon & Terwilliger (2017). IUCrJ, 4, doi:10.1107/S2052252516018315].

The coming of age of macromolecular neutron crystallography

The protein crystallography station (PCS), located at the Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center (LANSCE), was the first macromolecular crystallography beamline to be built at a spallation neutron source.

Screen to beam technology: the rise of haptic interfaces

Haptic interfaces have been readily adopted because of their intuitive ease of use and convenience. Obvious examples are the screens for your mobile phone or other computing devices where keyboards have been eliminated. This technology, which has been welcomed in everyday life, can also find a home in scientific research.

Impact and influence of crystallography across the sciences

The first diffraction experiment on a single crystal of copper sulfate by Max von Laue in 1912 and subsequent interpretation by Lawrence Bragg gave birth to the field of crystallography.

Size exclusion chromatography combined in situ with small-angle neutron scattering

Small-angle scattering is a powerful technique that can yield important structural information on macromolecular systems.

Real-time image-content-based beamline control for smart 4D X-ray imaging

Synchrotron-radiation-based imaging diagnostics has become a reliable tool for systematic examination of chemical and biological samples in various research areas.

A public database of macromolecular diffraction experiments

The reproducibility of published experimental results has recently attracted attention in many different scientific fields. The lack of availability of original primary scientific data represents a major factor contributing to reproducibility problems, however, the structural biology community has taken significant steps towards making experimental data available.

MAGNDATA: towards a database of magnetic structures

The quantitative characterisation of the magnetic ordering realised in magnetic phases is an essential part of research into the magnetic properties of solids. It is certainly fundamental for the cross-checking of theoretical models and for the exploration of complex solid-state magnetic phenomena.

Importance of diffuse scattering for materials science

The properties of many technological important materials are intimately associated with the inherent disorder that exists in their crystal structures.

Absolute structure determination: pushing the limits

It was the Softenon disaster that made the pharmaceutical industry fully aware of the importance of knowing the enantiomeric purity and chirality of drugs and their metabolites. This disaster involved the chiral drug Thalidomide that was sold in the 1950s as a racemate under various brand names such as Contergan and Softenon.

The new neutron grating interferometer at the ANTARES beamline

Neutron radiography is a non-destructive imaging technique, which provides information about the interior of an object with high spatial resolution by using neutron radiation.In contrast to X-ray radiography, neutron imaging is sensitive to some light elements such as hydrogen or lithium, while most heavy elements such as, for example, lead and aluminium can easily be penetrated.

Determining the structures of complex biological molecules

In the past decade there have been huge improvements in synchrotron sources, instrumentation at macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines, X-ray detectors, and data-processing and structure-determination software.

Synchrotron X-ray footprinting helps visualise water in proteins

Water molecules play an active role in a number of protein-dependent functions. Because proteins are the central players in cellular activities it is of vital importance to understand protein-water interactions.

Neutron crystallography aids in drug design

Neutron crystallography is an important complementary technique to X-ray crystallography since it provides details of the hydrogen atom and proton positions in biological molecules.

The BioSAXS beamline at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility

The new biological small-angle X-ray scattering (BioSAXS) beamline (BL19U2) at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF) is the first facility in China dedicated exclusively to SAXS experiments on biological macromolecules in solution.

X-ray optics on a chip

Waveguides are widely used for filtering, confining, guiding, coupling or splitting beams of visible light. However, creating waveguides that could do the same for X-rays has posed tremendous challenges in fabrication, so they are still only in an early stage of development.

A collection of computer programs for Free-electron Laser research

Free Electron Lasers (FELs) are transforming photon science and its various applications. Compared to X-ray pulses from third-generation synchrotron light sources, FEL pulses are 10¹⁰ times higher in peak brightness, are 10⁹ times higher in their coherence degeneracy parameters and provide femtosecond-attosecond time resolutions.

Sixth blind test of organic crystal-structure prediction methods

Organic molecules can have a remarkable array of solid forms, including different polymorphs and various multi-component systems, such as salts and co-crystals. The potential diversity of this solid-form landscape presents both opportunities and headaches for the practical use of molecules in solid forms.

Cryogenic coherent X-ray diffraction imaging of biological cells by X-ray free-electron lasers

Coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) has been used to visualise the internal structures of non-crystalline particles with dimensions of micrometers to sub-micrometers in materials science and biology.

Imaging enzyme kinetics at atomic resolution

The 1958 Nobel prize to Beadle and Tatum for proposing, in the main, that each gene is responsible for a distinct enzyme is now seen as both foundational to molecular biology and genetics.

Using energy-resolved neutron imaging to spot the difference

The ability of neutrons to penetrate relatively thick metal objects allows the use of various non-destructive testing techniques when other more conventional methods (e.g. laboratory X-ray) cannot be implemented.

Combustion research

The need to control pollutant emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels motivates interest in understanding these processes. Combustion phenomena are basically chemical processes with rapid heat production.

Method to focus an X-ray beam for potentially more efficient radiation therapy

External beam radiotherapy is a technique commonly used for the treatment of tumours. The most widely used particles for radiotherapy are protons, electrons and X-rays.

New system developed at EMBL automates crystals preparation for X-ray analysis

CrystalDirect streamlines the process of preparing crystals for X-ray diffraction experiments. Whereas scientists currently have to harvest and treat the crystals by hand, samples processed at EMBL’s high-throughput crystallisation (HTX) lab in Grenoble can now be loaded in the system at one end and the relevant data collected at the other, with little more than a mouse-click in-between.

Radiation damage in a nucleoprotein complex

Radiation damage has been a curse of macromolecular crystallography from its early days but recent work to systematically quantify its effect on nucleoprotein complexes suggests that RNA may protect these complexes

Potentially hazardous dental bur debris under fillings

Dental burs are used extensively in dentistry to mechanically prepare tooth structures for restorations (fillings); dental burs can be made of stainless steel, diamond or tungsten carbide (WC) cemented with cobalt or nickel.

Synchrotron used to find structure of a new material that could be found on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan

An ANSTO Planetary Materials scientist has used the Australian Synchrotron to identify the structure of a new material that could be crucial in understanding the hydrological cycle on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and important in assessing its potential habitability.

Hybrid pixel array detectors enter the low-noise regime

The detector group at the Swiss Light Source at PSI shows that it is now possible to develop hybrid pixel array detectors with sufficient low noise to allow single-photon detection below 1 keV as well as to perform spectroscopic imaging.

The updated crystalline sponge method

X-ray crystallographic analysis is one of the only methods that provides direct information on molecular structures at the atomic level. The method, however, has the intrinsic limitation that the target molecules must be crystalline, and high-quality single crystals must be prepared before measurement.

Irregular silicon wafer breakage studied in real-time by direct and diffraction X-ray imaging

Fracture and breakage of single crystals, particularly of silicon wafers, are multi-scale problems: the crack tip starts propagating on an atomic scale with the breaking of chemical bonds, forms crack fronts through the crystal on the micrometre scale and ends macroscopically in catastrophic wafer shattering.

Determining the structures of nanocrystalline pharmaceuticals by electron diffraction

Reliable information about the structure of pharmaceutical compounds is important for patient safety, for the development of related drugs and for patenting purposes. However, working out the structures of pharmaceuticals can be tough.

Crystal and magnetic structure of multiferroic hexagonal manganite

Ever since Pierre Curie conjectured on “the symmetry in physical phenomena, symmetry of an electric field and a magnetic field” in 1894, it has long been a dream for material scientists to search for this rather unusual class of material exhibiting the coexistence of magnetism and ferroelectricity in a single compound known as a multiferroic compound.

Twisted X-rays unravel the complexity of helical structures

Since the discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals just over 100 years ago, X-ray diffraction as a method of structure determination has dominated structural research in materials science and biology. However, many of the most important materials whose structures remain unknown do not readily crystallize as three-dimensional periodic structures.

Nucleoprotein C-terminal domain from the Ebola and Marburg viruses

Ebolavirus and Marburgvirus belong to a virus family called Filoviridae and can cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans. The outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa demonstrates the grave threat that these viruses pose globally to human health. While the EVD outbreak is slowly losing momentum, it is still unprecedented, resulting in over 23 000 cases and more than 9000 deaths by late 2015.

Digital enhancement of cryoEM photographs of protein nanocrystals

When cryoEM images are obtained from protein nanocrystals the images themselves can appear to be devoid of any contrast. A group of scientists from the Netherlands have now demonstrated that lattice information can be revealed and enhanced by a specialized filter.

FEL photon diagnostics, instrumentation and beamlines design

A selection of papers from the PhotonDiag2015 Workshop on FEL Photon Diagnostics, Instrumentation and Beamlines Design has been published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation.

Rising to the challenge of SAD phasing for SFX

Sulfur SAD phasing facilitates the structure determination of diverse native proteins using femtosecond X-rays from free-electron lasers via serial femtosecond crystallography.

Energy materials

The relationship between structure and properties is one of the most important and pervasive paradigms in physical sciences. It provides a means for understanding complex behaviour in materials at an atomistic level, and establishes a framework for the design of materials with specifically targeted properties.

Preserving diffraction images as part of the scientific record

A suite of recent articles on the platins and histidine in IUCr journals now contains DOI links to diffraction data images stored at an institutional repository.

Metal-organic frameworks: the pressure is on

Strain determination from digital image correlation of Laue diffraction spots

Accurate strain/stress characterization has important implications in practice, where it is typically connected with safe operation of engineering components.

A beamline that runs experiments by itself

MASSIF-1 is a beamline for the fully automatic characterisation and data collection from macromolecular crystals. The beamline has been open since September 2014 and to date has processed 10,000 samples.

The complexity of modelling

In recent years, advances in materials synthesis techniques have enabled scientists to produce increasingly complex functional materials with enhanced or novel macroscopic properties.

Predicting X-ray diffuse scattering from translation-libration-screw structural ensembles

Protein flexibility is essential for enzymatic turnover, signalling regulation and protein-protein interactions. Multiple crystal structures are routinely compared to identify these motions and to derive hypotheses about the role of correlated motions in executing protein function.

No such thing as ghosts?

Crystallographers are always pushing boundaries when it comes to determining complex structures with less than optimal experimental data. Here, two papers introduce a new phasing method, the Phantom Derivative approach.

The challenges and potential for sub-atomic resolution X-ray crystallography and neutron crystallography

The international year of crystallography saw the number of macromolecular structures deposited in the Protein Data Bank cross the 100,000 mark, with more than 90,000 of these provided by X-ray crystallography.

The MORPHEUS II protein crystallization screen

High-quality macromolecular crystals are a prerequisite for the process of protein structure determination by X-ray diffraction. Unfortunately, the relative yield of diffraction-quality crystals from crystallization experiments is often very low.

Brookhaven Lab Study Explores Nanoscale Structure of Thin Films

Result opens new doors in thin-film research and provides early confirmation of the expected impact of the National Synchrotron Light Source II

Charge density and optical properties of multicomponent crystals

Crystal engineering strategies towards optical materials based on active pharmaceutical molecules are highlighted.

15th International Conference on the Crystallization of Biological Macromolecules (ICCBM15)

The July 2015 issue of Acta Crystallographica Section F, Structural Biology Communications features a special selection of papers that elaborate on presentations made at the 15th International Conference on the Crystallization of Biological Macromolecules (ICCBM15), which was held in Hamburg, Germany, 17-20 September 2014.

Journey into the crystal

A travelling exhibition, Journey into the crystal, has been launched to share with the general public the importance of crystallography and the beauty of matter in the crystalline state. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey of discovery about matter, and on a journey through time to the beginning of crystallography.

Advances in membrane protein crystallography

Two in situ high-throughput methodologies open up new perspectives in X-ray crystallography of membrane proteins and will provide a more rapid route to structure determination where the crystals are too small or fragile to mount, or where radiation sensitivity requires data collection from hundreds of crystals.

The solvent component of macromolecular crystals

On average, the mother liquor or solvent and its constituents occupy about 50% of a macromolecular crystal. Ordered as well as disordered solvent components need to be accurately accounted for in modelling and refinement, often with considerable complexity.

Aperiodic crystals and beyond

Once a contradiction in terms, aperiodic crystals show instead that 'long-range order' has never been defined. Whatever it means, decades of intense research have shown it to be more complex and surprising than anyone suspected.

Framework materials yield to pressure

High pressure has become an indispensable research tool in the quest for novel functional materials. High-pressure crystallographic studies on non-porous framework materials based on coordination compounds are markedly on the rise, enabling the unravelling of structural phenomena and taking us a step closer to the derivation of structure-property relationships.

On-demand X-rays at Synchrotron Light Sources

Scientists who use synchrotron light sources are welcoming an era of “on-demand” X-rays, in which they have access to the light beams they want thanks to a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

3D structures in the design of therapeutics targeting parasitic protozoa

Parasitic protozoa cause a range of diseases which threaten billions of human beings. They are responsible for tremendous mortality and morbidity in the least-developed areas of the world.

Powder to become crystal clear

Turning one-dimensional diffraction from polycrystalline (powder) samples, particularly from multiphase samples, into three-dimensional single-crystal diffraction patterns has long been regarded as a difficult, if not impossible task, that is until now.

Modulated crystal structure of St John’s wort PR-10 protein

The proteins expressed by plants under stressful conditions (such as drought, salinity or pathogen invasion), known as pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins, have been divided into 17 classes. The members of most of these classes have well known biological activity

Macromolecular crystallography and what it can contribute to antiparasite drug discovery

The May 2015 issue of Acta Crystallographica Section F Structural Biology Communications (http://journals.iucr.org/f) is a dedicated special issue on the structural investigation of proteins associated with molecular parasitology, specifically research linked to protozoan pathogens.

X-ray Free-Electron Lasers

A new issue from the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation features content on X-ray free-electron lasers.

Intermolecular atom-atom bonds in crystals?

In the latest issue of IUCrJ, three essays have been published that consider the concept of interatomic bonds in crystals from different perspectives.

Combined effort for structural determination

Combining powder diffraction data with electron crystallography can give us a clearer view of modulated structures.

Making carboxyl(ate) friends

When it comes to supramolecular chemistry, the carboxylic acid group (and its conjugate carboxylate base) is one of the chemist's most flexible friends.

Fluctuation X-ray scattering

In biology, materials science and the energy sciences, structural information provides important insights into the understanding of matter. The link between a structure and its properties can suggest new avenues for designed improvements of synthetic materials or provide new fundamental insights in biology and medicine at the molecular level.

The ecstasy and the agony: compression studies of MDMA

Microbial soil cleanup at Fukushima

Environmentally friendly absorbents are needed for Sr²⁺ and Cs⁺, as the removal of the radioactive Sr²⁺ and Cs⁺ that has leaked from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is one of the most important problems in Japan.

Smart crystallization

The first semi-liquid, non-protein nucleating agent for automated protein crystallization trials is described. This `smart material' is demonstrated to induce crystal growth and will provide a simple, cost-effective tool for scientists in academia and industry.

Radiation damage to macromolecules: kill or cure?

Radiation damage induced by X-ray beams during macromolecular diffraction experiments remains an issue of concern in structural biology. While advances in our understanding of this phenomenon undoubtedly have been and are still being made, there are still questions to be answered.

Data to knowledge: how to get meaning from your result

A group of researchers present a variety of techniques and technologies aimed at the transformation of crystallographic data into information and knowledge.

The revival of the Bravais lattice

Fluorescence-based protein crystal identification

Fluorescence, whether intrinsic or by using trace fluorescent labeling, can be a powerful aid in macromolecule crystallization. Its use in screening for crystals is discussed.

Dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D)

Powder diffraction data rarely provide all the structural detail a crystallographer needs. But, if theoretical calculations in the form of dispersion-corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) can validate the data, then for structures where sufficiently large crystals are inaccessible the picture can be made clearer.

XPAD X-ray hybrid pixel detector

The new generation of X-ray detector, the hybrid pixel detector, is based on direct detection and single-photon counting processes. A large linearity range, high dynamic and extremely low noise leading to a high signal to noise ratio and fast readout time are just some of their many favourable characteristics.

A second form of cytosine

A group of scientists have discovered the first known second polymorph of a nucleobase.

The rarely understood ammonium carbonate monohydrate

New structural studies of the superficially simple ammonium carbonate monohydrate could shed light on industrial process, biochemistry and even the interstellar building blocks of life.

Solving difficult structures with electron diffraction

Precession electron diffraction has solved a long-standing challenge in electron diffraction. Further progress promises a general technique for structure determination of difficult crystals.

Photocrystallography

Using the combined techniques of photocrystallography and infrared spectroscopy is a very powerful method for generating and establishing the structures of metastable linkage isomers in the solid state as exemplified by the work of Casaretto et al. [IUCrJ (2015), 2, 35–44] on [RuCl(NO)₂(PPh₃)₂]BF₄.

Serial crystallography for the masses?

Serial crystallography should be possible with a much wider range of radiation sources as Ayyer et al. [IUCrJ (2015), 2, 29–34] show that crystallographic intensities can be recovered from randomly oriented frames which are too sparse for indexing.

SHELXT – Integrated space-group and crystal-structure determination

SHELX is a system of nine programs for the solution and refinement of crystal structures against X-ray and neutron diffraction data.

Martian crystallography

A German team has crystallized five interesting water-rich hydrates of aluminium halides at very low temperatures, simulating possible environmental conditions on Mars. It is hoped that these results may help our understanding of the chemistry of the Red Planet as revealed by several space probes, and provide insights into the possibility of low-temperature aqueous pools, possibly able to sustain life.

The first X-ray diffraction measurements on Mars

In 2012 the Mars Science Laboratory landed in the fascinating Gale crater. The Gale crater is of such great interest because of the 5.5 km high mountain of layered materials in the middle. This material tells an intricate story of the history of Mars, perhaps spanning much of the existence of this mysterious planet.

Unravelling the complexity of proteins

Knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of proteins is essential for understanding biological processes.

Structures help to explain molecular and biochemical functions, visualise details of macromolecular interactions, facilitate understanding of underlying biochemical mechanisms and define biological concepts.

Coherence comes into the fold

From their discovery to this day, X-rays have been used for imaging. Defined broadly as techniques that permit characterization of the spatial distribution of matter, imaging encompasses fields from medical applications to X-ray microscopy and even crystallography.

A laboratory grade hybrid pixel detector

For the first time a group of authors present a pixel detector mounted on a commercial goniometer, equipped with a microfocus X-ray source, to generate high-resolution X-ray data.

A new generation storage ring

The MAX IV facility, currently under construction in Lund, Sweden, is the first of a new generation of storage-ring-based synchrotron light sources which employs new technology enabling the realisation of a new class of experiments which are critically dependent on source brightness.

Towards controlled dislocations

Klie and co-workers have used atomic-resolution Z-contrast imaging and X-ray spectroscopy in a scanning transmission electron microscope to explore dislocations in the binary II-VI semiconductor CdTe, commercially used in thin-film photovoltaics. The results may lead to eventual improvement in the conversion efficiency of CdTe solar cells. These novel insights into atomically resolved chemical structure of dislocations have potential for understanding many more defect-based phenomena.

Crystallography in Africa

A recent paper resulting in part from the IUCr's Crystallography in Africa initiative has been published in Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials.

Fingerprinting haemprotein crystal structures

A group of scientists from Europe and the USA have successfully used high-resolution X-ray crystallography alongside resonance Raman Spectroscopy to “fingerprint” and validate different redox and ligand states in crystal structures of proteins.

Chemists explore the mechanisms behind food spoilage

The research team of Annette Rompel from the Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, University of Vienna explore the mechanisms behind the "browning reaction" during the spoilage of mushrooms.

A refined approach to proteins at low resolution

Crystals of membrane proteins and protein complexes often diffract to low resolution owing to their intrinsic molecular flexibility, heterogeneity or the mosaic spread of micro-domains. At low resolution, the building and refinement of atomic models is a more challenging task. The deformable elastic network (DEN) refinement method developed previously has been instrumental in the determination of several structures at low resolution. Here, DEN refinement is reviewed. [Schröder, Levitt & Brunger. (2014), Acta Cryst. D70, 2241-2255; doi: 10.1107/S1399004714016496 ]

Gregori Aminoff Prize 2015

Professor Ian Robinson of the London Centre of Nanotechnology has been awarded the 2015 Gregori Aminoff Prize in Crystallography. Professor Robinson is also an IUCr author and currently Co-editor of the open-access journal IUCrJ.