I know it is going to hijack the original topic but I could not help... “The reports of death of (macromolecular) crystallography are greatly exaggerated. If we believed the prognosticators, it has been dead since the 80s when some folks made the claim that the only relevant structures were those solved by NMR. I think we've done quite well since then... Best, Nukri
On Mon, Jul 15, 2019 at 3:45 PM <r...@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk> wrote: > Hi Tassos, Tim, > > I wonder why would you or anyone on this list worry whether biological > questions that can be asked and answered with structures are relevant to > justify the resources? I think there is abundant evidence that this is the > case. Unless your point is that crystallography is now dead for all > practical > purposes... then yes, I fully agree :-) It would however be wrong to erase > its > historical contribution to understanding biology. > > Best wishes, > > Radu > > > > I would wonder more if the biological questions you can *ask* with a > (crystal) > > structure are sufficiently relevant to justify the resources. > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > > >> On 15 Jul 2019, at 22:08, Tim Grüne <tim.gru...@univie.ac.at> wrote: > >> > >> Dear James, > >> > >> 10) are the biological questions that you can answer with a (crystal) > >> structure sufficiently relevant to justify the resources? > >> > >> Best, > >> Tim > >> > >> > >> > >> Am 15.07.2019 21:44, schrieb Holton, James M: > >>> Hello folks, > >>> I have the distinct honor of chairing the next Gordon Research > >>> Conference on Diffraction Methods in Structural Biology (July 26-31 > >>> 2020). This meeting will focus on the biggest challenges currently > >>> faced by structural biologists, and I mean actual real-world > >>> challenges. As much as possible, these challenges will take the form > of > >>> friendly competitions with defined parameters, data, a scoring system, > >>> and "winners", to be established along with other unpublished results > >>> only at the meeting, as is tradition at GRCs. > >>> But what are the principle challenges in biological structure > >>> determination today? I of course have my own ideas, but I feel like > I'm > >>> forgetting something. Obvious choices are: > >>> 1) getting crystals to diffract better > >>> 2) building models into low-resolution maps (after failing at #1) > >>> 3) telling if a ligand is really there or not > >>> 4) the phase problem (dealing with weak signal, twinning and > >>> pseudotranslation) > >>> 5) what does "resolution" really mean? > >>> 6) why are macromolecular R factors so much higher than small-molecule > >>> ones? > >>> 7) what is the best way to process serial crystallography data? > >>> 8) how should one deal with non-isomorphism in multi-crystal methods? > >>> 9) what is the "structure" of something that won't sit still? > >>> What am I missing? Is industry facing different problems than > >>> academics? Are there specific challenges facing electron-based > >>> techniques? If so, could the combined strength of all the world's > >>> methods developers solve them? I'm interested in hearing the voice of > >>> this community. On or off-list is fine. > >>> -James Holton > >>> MAD Scientist > >>> > ######################################################################## > >>> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > >>> https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > >> > >> -- > >> -- > >> Tim Gruene > >> Head of the Centre for X-ray Structure Analysis > >> Faculty of Chemistry > >> University of Vienna > >> > >> Phone: +43-1-4277-70202 > >> > >> GPG Key ID = A46BEE1A > >> > >> ######################################################################## > >> > >> To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > >> https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > > > > ######################################################################## > > > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > > > > > -- > Radu Aricescu > MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology > Francis Crick Avenue > Cambridge Biomedical Campus > Cambridge CB2 0QH, U.K. > tel: +44-(0)1223-267049 > fax: +44-(0)1223-268305 > www: http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/group-leaders/a-to-g/radu-aricescu > > ######################################################################## > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1
