Dear James (All),
I personally feel as if point 1
(crystallization) should be the main focus of discussion and future
developments. All other points are already constantly improving and people
are making constantly advances in those field (i.e., they seem to know how
to move things forward). Crystallization instead is desperately needing
for funding and new ideas. New technology, e.g., small arrays of
proteins/nanotechnology (1D or 2D crystals/scaffolds to inject in XFEL??),
new chemicals for crystallization, usage of smaller amounts of sample (10
+ 10 nl with acoustic dispenser ??), cheaper imaging hotels, or whatever
some clever people may come up with. Apologies if it may sound a bit too
obvious.
BW,
D
> Stating
the crystallography is dead might be a bit premature, it is still
> king for depositions.
>
>
>
> In 2017 we had a large number of fragment screening experiments
deposited.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
From: CCP4 bulletin board <CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK> On Behalf Of
Nukri
> Sanishvili
> Sent: 15 July 2019 23:09
> To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
> Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] challenges in structural biology
>
>
>
> 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
> <mailto: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
>>> <mailto: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
>>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> --
>>> Tim Gruene
>>> Head of the Centre for X-ray Structure Analysis
>>> Faculty of Chemistry
>>> University of Vienna
>>>
>>> Phone: +43-1-4277-70202
>>>
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>>>
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>
>
> --
> 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
>
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