Macromolecular Crystallography
October 16 - 31, 2023
Key Dates:
Application Deadline: July 15
Arrival: October 15th by 6pm EST
Departure: October 31st
CSHL Courses are intensive, running all day and often including evenings and weekends; students are expected to attend all sessions and reside on campus for the duration of the course.
Instructors:
Paul Adams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Dorothee Liebschner, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Janet Newman, UNSW, Australia
James Pflugrath, Rigaku Americas Corporation (ret.), Texas
Co-Instructor:
Tom Peat, UNSW, Australia
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COVID-19: All participants planning to attend in-person will be required to attest to recent COVID vaccination (within one year of the course’s start date) with an FDA or WHO approved vaccine. Additional safety measures will be in line with current NY and Federal Guidelines applicable in Fall 2023.
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X-ray crystallography has been the cornerstone of structural biology for half a century and remains the technique of choice for atomic resolution understanding of macromolecules and for structure guided drug discovery. This intense course combines laboratory and computational instruction to train course participants in the major techniques used to determine three-dimensional structures. It is designed for scientists with a working knowledge of protein structure and function, but who are new to macromolecular crystallography or who wish to increase their in-depth knowledge of macromolecular crystallography. The advent of methods for the accurate prediction of protein structures is accelerating crystallography experiments, and the course will train researchers in how to best use these models.
Topics to be covered include:
- Basic Diffraction Theory
- Structure Presentation
- Coordinate Deposition
- Structure Validation
- Model Building and Refinement
- Electron Density Maps Improvement
- Using Predicted Models in Structure Solution and Completion
- Protein Structure Prediction
- Structure Solution by Experimental Phasing Methods (SAD, MAD, MIR, and others) and Molecular Replacement
- Data Collection and Processing
- Synchrotron X-ray Sources and Optics
- Crystallization (Proteins, Nucleic Acids, Complexes and Membrane Proteins)
Participants have extensive hands-on training in well-equipped labs in how to crystallize proteins and determine crystal structures by several methods, while learning through lectures on theory and methods. Both basic and advanced subjects are covered during lectures, which are given by leaders in the field. Informal discussions behind the techniques are frequent and students are expected to pose questions to be answered in interactive sessions
Applicants should be familiar with the creation and editing of simple text files on Linux workstations.
Prior Speakers Included:
Dominika Borek, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Martin Caffrey, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
James Conway, University of Pittsburgh
Paul Emsley, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, United Kingdom
William Furey, University of Pittsburgh
Gary Gilliland, Janssen Research & Development, LLC
Wayne Hendrickson, Columbia University
James Holton, University of California, San Francisco
Gerard Kleywegt European Bioinformatics Institute, United Kingdom
Alex McPherson, UC Irvine
Nicholas Noinaj, Purdue University
Randy Read, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Jane Richardson, Duke University
Clyde Smith, Stanford University
Thomas Terwilliger, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Andrea Thorn, University of Hamburg, Germany
Christopher Williams, Duke University
Support & Stipends:
We would like to acknowledge the following companies that provided invaluable support:
Equipment: Avidien Technologies, SPT Labtech, Art Robbins Instruments, ThermoFisher Scientific
Donations: Avidien Technologies, Hampton Research, MiTeGen, Polyvalan, SPT Labtech, Natex, Worthington Biochemical
Stipends are available to offset tuition costs as follows:
Please indicate your eligibility for funding in your stipend request submitted when you apply to the course. Stipend requests do not affect selection decisions made by the instructors.
Cost (including board and lodging): $4,660
No fees are due until you have completed the full application process and are accepted into the course.
Before applying, ensure you have (all due July 15):
- Personal statement/essay;
- Letter(s) of recommendation;
- Curriculum vitae/resume (optional);
- Financial aid request (optional).
More details.
If you are not ready to fully apply but wish to express interest in applying, receive a reminder two weeks prior to the deadline, and tell us about your financial aid requirements, click below: