Dear Colleagues

We (the board members of the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society) are pleased to announce the availability of travel awards to attend the 80^th Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference. The Conference will be held at the Society’s ancestral home, in Pittsburgh, PA, on October 15, 2023 â€" October 17, 2023.

The awards are aimed at students, postdoctoral fellows as well as (non-faculty) staff scientists. Applications from minorities underrepresented in the sciences are especially encouraged. Details can be found here as well as attached.

The conference program includes

·        A historic overview on the Pittsburgh Diffraction Society

·        Scientific Sessions covering the Latest Development at Light Sources, High-pressure Applications, Structure-based drug design, Synergy of Computation and Crystallography, Crystallography and Cryo-EM, Structure property relationships in Quantum and Layered Materials, and many more!

·        A Young Investigator Platform showcasing achievements of students and postdocs

·        Student posters are eligible for the Chung Soo Yoo Award, which carries a $400 cash prize, related to materials and biological research, respectively

·        Fun social activities and Vendor Shows!

·        A Phenix Workshop prior to the conference (Oct 14, 2023, limited availability!)

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For the entire program, the venue and more details, and to register, please visit the conference web page.

The flagship of the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) activities is the European Crystallographic Meeting (ECM), held every year, except when there is an IUCr Congress. The ECMs are the main meeting point for crystallographers in the ECA area to show their recent research. Microsymposia at ECMs are proposed and organized by ECA SIGs.

ECM 34 will be organized at the Padova Congress Centre on behalf of ECA and AIC. It will include all topics of interest to crystallography and it will be organized in synergy with EPIDC 18, which will follow ECM 34 in the same location.

Room temperature data collection is experiencing a resurgence in structural biology due to its capacity to reveal physiological relevant conformations that could be hindered at cryogenic temperatures. The ESRF and EMBL Joint Structural Biology Group has been laying the groundwork for the future development of this field with two main projects: the refurbishment of MASSIF-1, including a CrystalDirect Harvester, allowing full automation of single crystal RT data collection and the new ID29 for time resolved serial crystallography data collection on high viscosity extruders and fixed targets. This 2.5 days workshop will cover the different practical and theoretical aspects of room temperature data collection and structure determination on the first day, followed by practicals at the beamlines and on data processing on the following days.

A total number of 10 participants will be selected and we will accept a limited number of participants' samples to be tested during the workshop. There is no registration fee and meals and accommodation during the workshop will be provided free of charge. Bursaries are available to cover travel expenses for the participants.

Deadline for application for the workshop is on 15th August. Applications can be submitted at the following link https://survey.esrf.fr/index.php/212282?lang=en

The Young Crystallographers are a working group within the German Society for Crystallography (DGK). For 10 years, we meet regularly in autumn at different universities or the STOE facilities.

These meetings specifically aim to provide a platform for networking and scientific exchange for young scientists with an interest in crystallography, as well as to establish contacts with industry and research institutions.
We want to give young scientists the opportunity to gain early experience in scientific presentation in a relaxed atmosphere and without the stress of a larger conference.

For our grand anniversary, we are happy to meet at the DESY facilities! We are working hard to allow you deep insights as well as a great overview of the possibilities at this large-scale facility.

During the 3-day meeting, you willÂ

• present your own work as a poster (A0 portrait) and lightning talk (~5 min.)
• have the DESY campus tour
• participate in an experiment and get a hands-on experience at a beamline of your choice at PETRA III (see The Experiments)
• hear academic talks from senior scientists
• hear industry talks from our sponsors/partners

At the end of the meeting, you will also have the chance to join a tour of the European XFEL Campus. If you intend to participate, please indicate so during registration. Note that you will need to get to the XFEL facilities by public transport as it is a bit outside the main DESY campus.

The registration fee of 60 € includes the tours and experiments at DESY, coffee breaks as well as lunch and BBQ on Thursday.

Deadline for registration is 22.08.23.

Integrative structural biology is a powerful approach to understand biological macromolecular systems. This symposium highlights the integrative research approaches from our structural sciences community, and we expect an attendance of 100 participants. We reserved slots for presentations to be selected from the poster abstracts reflecting the exciting developments in many different areas.

The keynote lecture will be given by Michael Rout (Rockefeller University).
 

Confirmed Speakers
Hashim Al-Hashimi (Columbia University)
Olga Boudker (Weill Cornell Medical College)
Brian Chait (Rockefeller University)
Pilar Cossio (Flatiron Institute)
Alex de Marco (New York Structural Biology Center)
Amedee des Georges (City University of New York)
Anthony Fitzpatrick (Columbia University)
Ruben Gonzalez (Columbia University)
Alisha Jones (New York University)
Chris Lima (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

We are really happy to announce the first Grenoble Practical Workshop 
dedicated to helical symmetry determination of biological polymers 
imaged by cryo-EM, *17th to 21st of July 2023, online*.

Determining the helical parameters from a sample with helical 
symmetry(ies) is often the bottleneck for successful structure 
determination. The learning curve to get familiar with this process is 
steep and full of crevices.

In this workshop, we will guide the participants who already have 
helical assemblies data in their hands (see below) through this process, 
exploiting all possible information, including power spectra 
interpretation, 2D class-averages analysis and clue hunting from raw 
data inspection.

The practicals will cover the use of helixplorer 
(https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://rico.ibs.fr/helixplorer/__;!!Mih3wA!FuXAIKSush5n5zbFX1AKGJLHIyqhXwFf8VHpoYSSWGs8Pp3GEfVBZBiBYLlnaFEBrKTzfbA8VwHrMubwy_iaUharVpj2$ ), but will not be limited to this 
approach.


Although the main focus will be on helical parameters determination, we 
will also discuss general reconstruction strategies, including dealing 
with flexible helices, multiple symmetries, and merging of data from 
different symmetry filaments using subtraction approaches.

In order to apply to the workshop, applicants :

-can be at any career level (PhD, postdocs, senior scientists, ...)

-must have an ongoing project involving a helical sample, and have 
difficulties in solving its structure

-agree to work on their own data during the workshop. Participants are 
expected to share some raw images, 2D-class averages, and sum of PS with 
the organizers (and screen sharing with other participants). However, 
the name of their protein/organism and the exact nature and function of 
their protein/filaments will remain confidential.

Please send your application, including a short letter describing your 
project and difficulties, screenshots of raw data and 2D class-averages, to

[email protected]

[email protected]

*Before the 15th of June. *

The 4th RICCEM will be held in hybrid format.

Conference topics:

• Structure of membrane proteins;
• Structure and functions of the transcription and translation apparatus of the cell;
• Structure of viruses and chaperonins;
• Molecular organization of cells and organelles, studied by subtomogram averaging;
• Advances in EM technology and image processing;
• Medical applications of cryo-EM.

Monday, May 1, 2023, 8:00-9:30 AM (PDT)
 

Speakers:

Prof. Christopher O. Barnes

Talk Title: Structure-guided Design of Next-generation Immunotherapies against Emerging Coronaviruses
 

Dr. Peter Denes

Talk Title: Count Every Electron

This course will introduce high-resolution Cryo-EM to the structural biology research community. Tt will include image formation and three-dimensional reconstruction theories and available software, tutorials, and demonstrations for data collection and analysis.
The course is free of charge, but you will need to register: here

• MS1. Refinement and development of microscopy techniques
• MS2. Studies for structure and strain in materials
• MS3. Electron microscopy in-situ and in-operando techniques
• MS4. Functional materials
• MS5. Microscopy of soft and beam-sensitive materials
• MS6. Use of spectroscopic techniques in material science and geoscience

• LS1. Beyond the resolution revolution - new challenges in cryo-EM/ET
• LS2. Image analysis and data visualization
• LS3. Correlative light and electron microscopy
• LS4. Ultrastrucutral pathology and disease understanding
• LS5. Automated and AI based microscopy imaging and analysis
• LS6. In situ and live cell microscopy

Workshop topics will include

• Fragment screening method development at both synchrotrons and laboratory-based screening facilities
• Application results presented by eminent scientists in the field will be accompanied by computer-based demonstrations in order to familiarize the audience the growing arsenal of new methods.
• Ability for students to present their results/issues to the workshop

This is a hybrid workshop hosted at Stanford-SLAC Cryo-EM Center (S2C2).

The workshop will alternate theoretical discussions with practical examples using experimental data with a main focus on Single Particle Analysis (SPA). We will demonstrate simultaneously how to apply different software packages at different stages of the image processing pipeline (like Relion, Xmipp, CryoSPARC, among others), a task that we will achieve transparently using the software integration framework Scipion. We will also address some advanced topics in Tomography in which an extra degree of robustness can be introduced along similar lines as those introduced in SPA with the help of Scipion runn
 ing iMod, EMAN, Relion, Dynamo, and Xmipp. Attendees are expected to be familiar with standard image processing pipelines in Single Particle Analysis. On the last day the talks on theory and practices will focus on advanced image processing topics, as well as their connection with molecular motion, 3D visualization, atomic modeling, structure validation, and drug design.

This will be a hybrid workshop. Due to available resources, we will have only 50 spots for onsite hands-on practical participation with all others attending via Zoom.

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Capturing Subcellular Architecture from Organelles to Organisms

This RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB) virtual course will be broadcast on 
Zoom. Please fill out the registration form to receive the Zoom link. 
Registration will be available online from March 1, 2023 to May 3, 2023.
 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Understand the basics of PDBx/mmCIF data dictionary and file format that 
underpin archiving of more than 200,000 experimentally determined 
three-dimensional biostructures in the PDB. Learn about software tools 
for generating and working with PDBx/mmCIF files, and programmatic 
access for harvesting PDB data. Main topics:

 * PDBx/mmCIF format description and examples
 * PDBx/mmCIF data model
 * Software tools for generating, editing, and visualizing PDBx/mmCIF 
files
 * PDBx/mmCIF dictionary extensions, including ModelCIF for computed
 structure models (CSM) from AI/ML
 * Parsing data from PDBx/mmCIF files for your research

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Professionals and graduate students interested in learning about 
strategies to take full advantage of PDB data in the fields of:

 * Structural biology
 * Cheminformatics and computational chemistry
 * Bioinformatics and computational biology

 

Use PDB data to their full extent: Understanding PDBx/mmCIF

Wednesday, May 3rd 2023 | 1:00 PM EDT