SIGs
Role and constitution of a SIG
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Report 2006-2007
1. Introduction.
SIG1 endeavours to unite and support the large and growing community of macromolecular crystallographers throughout Europe. This is currently a dynamic field with a continually high impact to science in general. Some meetings/workshops organized by members of SIG1 include:
2. Past Activities.
Title: 8th International School on the Crystallography of Biological Macromolecules, Como, Italy, May 21-25, 2006.
Number of Participants: 202
Organizers: Anastassis Perrakis, Andrea Carfi, Stefania Di Marco
Sponsors: MAXINF2, Merck, Jena BioScience, Hamilton, Molecular Dimensions, Tecan, BIOXHIT, fluidigm, accelrys, Qiagen.
Description: The school focuses on the application of X-ray crystallographic methods to the study of biological macromolecules, with emphasis on the latest developments. The programme includes lectures on protein expression and purification, crystallization, data collection and processing, synchrotron sources, phasing, phase improvement, model building, refinement and analysis of structural data.
Title: Workshop on Experimental Phasing of Macromolecules, Göttingen, Germany, Sept 7-14, 2006.
Number of Participants: 30
Organizers: George Sheldrick, Tim Grüne
Sponsors: MAXINF2.
Description:
This workshop continues the tradition of SHELX workshops in Göttingen with the emphasis this time on solving macromolecular structures by MAD, SAD, SIRAS, RIP and ab initio methods.
Title: 9. Heart of Europe Meeting on Bio-Crystallography, Teistungenburg, Germany, Sept 25-27, 2006.
Number of Participants: 120
Organizers: R. Ficner, O. Einsle
Sponsors: Oxford Diffraction, Fluidigm, GE Healthcare, Qiagen, Sarstedt, Marresearch, Rigaku, Greiner bio-one, Sartorius
Description:
This meeting provides a platform for the discussion of macromolecular crystallography in Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia and Eastern Germany.
Title: BioCrys2006: Fundamentals of Modern Methods in Biocrystallography, Oeiras, Portugal, October 6-13, 2006.
Number of Participants: 36 students and 19 tutors
Organizers: Maria Arménia Carrondo, Thomas Schneider
Sponsors: EMBO, MAXINF2, FEBS, IUCr, BIOXHIT, Municipality of Oeiras, British Council Qiagen, Fundacao Luso-Americana, CCDC, Corning
Description: The course focused on Macromolecular Crystallography, by developing the fundamental concepts of Crystallography and illustrate these by tutorial and practical sessions.
Title: HSC2: Structural Genomics, Grenoble, France, October 6-13, 2006.
Number of Participants: 20
Organizers: H BELRHALI, D HALL, E MITCHELL, M WALSH
Sponsors: Marie Curie Actions, Universite Joseph Fourier, INP Grenoble, ESRF, ILL, EU, Medical Research Council.
Description: High throughput techniques for protein expression, purification and nano-scale crystallisation have emerged and concurrently with this, more and smaller crystals are increasingly brought to the synchrotron..
Title: CCP4 Study Weekend, Reading, United Kingdom, January 4-6, 2006.
Number of Participants: ~300
Organizers: R.Read, P.Evans, A.Leslie, V.Lamzin, G.Langer, E.Dodson
Sponsors: CCP4, CCLRC, BBSRC
Description: Introduction to CCP4 software package with special emphasis on recently added/updated software.
Title: CCP4/MaxInf Workshop, York, United Kingdom, April 10-15, 2007.
Number of Participants: 30
Organizers: R.Read, P.Evans, A.Leslie, V.Lamzin, G.Langer, E.Dodson
Sponsors: CCP4
Description: Introduction to CCP4 software package with special emphasis on recently added/updated software.
Title: Biophysics of ligand binding to drug targets, Illkirch, France, May 14-15, 2007.
Number of Participants: 30
Organizers: A. Podjarny, D Altschuh, P Barth, A Dejaegere, P Dumas
Sponsors: Rigaku, Region Alsace, MicroCal, Chemical Computing Group
Description: Combining biophysical approaches to detect, measure and model the ligands binding to drug targets.
Title: SBNET – Swedish Structural Biology Net Meeting, Tällberg, Sweden, June 15-18, 2007.
Number of Participants: 175
Organizers: J Weigelt, P Nordlund, G Schneider
Sponsors: MicroCal, Evitra, SGC, AstraZeneca, SBNET, Karolinska Institutet, Bruker.
Description: Structural Biology in Sweden.
3. Future/Programmed Activities.
Title: 9th International Conference on Biology and Synchrotron Radiation, Manchester United Kingdom, August 13-17, 2007
Organizers: S Hasnain, L Johnson
Sponsors: AstraZeneca, BBSRC, British Biophysical Society, Canon Foundation, Daresbury Laboratory, Diamond, GlaxoSmithKline, Liverpool John Moores University, MRC, ProteinCrystallography.com, Manchester Metropolitan University, Marresearch, Nature, Science, Shimadzu, University of Liverpool, Wellcome trust.
Description: The meeting will address the latest advances in structural genomics, multiprotein complexes, structure based drug design, membrane proteins, metallo proteins, biological spectroscopy (CD, IR, etc), non-crystalline diffraction, XAFS, imaging, instrumentation, computational biology and radiation damage.
Title: Murnau Conference on Structural Biology of Disease Mechanisms, Murnau Germany, September 5-8, 2007
Organizers: D Heinz, E Conti, P Cramer, K Djinovic-Carugo, R Ficner, M Gruetter, R Ladenstein, D Moras, Y Muller, M Sattler, H Stark, M Weiss, U. Wendt, R Williams, A Wittinghofer
Sponsors: Marresearch, Rigaku, Bruker, Molecular Dimensions, BASF, MicroCal, Oxford Diffraction, Jena Bioscience, Fluidigm, Sanofi Aventis
Description: The meeting will focus on the current understanding of molecular principles underlying major human diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases and diabetes from a structural point of view.
Title: S-SAD diffraction data phasing of macromolecule single crystals from home and Synchrotron X-ray sources"
Organizers: Maria Arménia Carrondo, Pedro Matias, Daniele de Sanctis
Sponsors: BIOXHIT
Description: Teach state of the art methods and protocols in the collection, processing, scaling
and phasing of S-SAD diffraction data from crystals of macromolecules aimed at obtaining the best possible interpretable map prior to model building.
Title: 4th International PhD Student Symposium, Göttingen Germany, Sept. 12-15, 2007.
Organizers: H Al-Hashimi, N Ban, R Beckmann, K Gardner
Sponsors: Merck, Miltenyi Biotec, Ewald Innovationsbiologie, Fermentas, Sarstedt.
Description: HSC6 will allow scientists interested in structure in biology to gain experience in state of the art synchrotron techniques.
Title: HSC6 – Hercules Specialized Course on advances and new applications of Synchrotron Radiation for Structural Biology, ESRF, Grenoble, France, October 7-13, 2007
Organizers: S Bohic, S McSweeney, N Theyencheri
Sponsors: Marie Curie Actions, Universite Joseph Fourier, INP Grenoble, ESRF, ILL
Description: HSC6 will allow scientists interested in structure in biology to gain experience in state of the art synchrotron techniques.
Title: 6TH NCCR Practical course on biomolecular modelling, Kandersteg, Switzerland, January 6 - 11, 2008.
Organizers: WF. van Gunsteren
Sponsors:
Description: This course is directed to PhD students and postdocs from experimental structural biology groups wishing to learn more on biomolecular modelling.
4. Other matters:
Due to other commitments, Prof. Maria Arménia Corrondo, the current Chairperson of SIG1, has decided to step down from this position as of September 2007. SIG1 will therefore elect a new chair at its annual meeting on August 26, 2007 during the ECM24 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Supplementary Materials.
None
Chair: Maria Arménia Carrondo, Lisbon, Portugal,
Vice-Chair: Matthias Bochtler, Warsaw, Poland / Cardiff, United Kingdom
Secretary: Wolf-Dieter Schubert, Braunschweig, Germany
Further members:
Mariusz Jaskolski, Posnan, Poland
Victor Lamzin, Hamburg, Germany
Anette Hendriksen, Valby, Denmark
Naomi Chayen, London, United Kingdom
Manfred Weiss, Hamburg, Germany
Report 2005-2006
(1) Current Executive Committee
The current members of the Executive Committee are:
Chairperson: Anders Liljas (Molecular Biophysics, Lund University, Box 124, Getingevaegen 60, 221 00 Lund, Sweden, )
Vice-Chairperson: Michael Kokkinidis ( )
Secretary: Wolf-Dieter Schubert ( )
Ordinary Members:
Victor Lamzin ( )
Sine Larsen ( )
Mariusz Jaskolski ( )
Naomi Chayen ( )
The term of Anders Liljas (chair) and Michael Kokkinidis (Vice-chair) will end August 8, 2006 (see below).
(2) Preparations for the next ECM
SIG1 sees its major responsibility in organizing up-to-the-minute micro-symposia for the ECA annual meetings. It has actively supported the organizers of the ECM 23 in Leuven as regards the biological microsymposia. Members of the SIG are involved as chairs or co-chairs with the meeting in Leuven.
(3) Annual Meeting
The annual meeting of SIG1 generally coincides with the ECM or IUCr meetings. This yearfs meeting will take place during the lunch-time break on August 8 at the ECM in Leuven. Lunch will be provided – kindly sponsored by Molecular Dimensions.
The term of office (3 years) of the chair, Anders Liljas and the vice chair, Michael Kokkinidis will end as of this day. Anders Liljas has decided not to stand again, while Michael would be happy to continue as vice-chair. SIG1 will therefore need to fill both positions during its annual meeting.
(4) Workshops and Meeting
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. As an important source of funding for these activities, MAXINF2 started on December 1, 2004 (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
(4) Plans for 2006/07
Planned Workshops/Meetings include:
(5) Other Topics
none
Report 2004-2005
(1) Current Executive Committee
In a meeting held at ECM22 in Budapest, Thomas Schneider resigned from the Secretary position. Wolf-Dieter Schubert (German Research Center for Biotechnology, Braunschweig, Germany) was elected Secretary for the next three years.
Current members of the Executive Committee are:
Chairman: Anders Liljas ( ),
Vice-Chairman: Michael Kokkinidis ( ),
Secretary: Wolf-Dieter Schubert ( ),
Ordinary Members: Victor Lamzin ( ),
Sine Larsen ( ), and
Mariusz Jaskolski ( ).
(2) Preparations for the next ECM
The major responsibility of this SIG is to organise up-to-the-minute micro-symposia for the ECA annual meetings. Because there is an IUCr meeting in 2005, and hence no ECM, there has been no need for us to actively organise a program. However, many members of the SIG have contributed as chairs or co-chairs to the Florence IUCr meeting.
(3) Workshops and Meetings
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. As an important source of funding for these activities, MAXINF2 started on December 1, 2004. The main sources of funding in the reporting period were MAX-INF and MAX-INF2 (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
(4) Plans for 2005/06
Planned European Workshops and Meetings include:
(5) Other Topics
We would like to ask all members of the MCSIG to check that they have actually paid their ECA membership dues. The ECA needs the small income from this source to remain operational.
Report 2003-2004
(1) Current Executive Committee
Chairman: Anders Liljas (Molecular Biophysics, Lund University, Box 124, visiting address: Getingevaegen 60, 221 00 Lund, Sweden,
)
Vice-Chairman: Michael Kokkinidis (
)
Secretary: Thomas R. Schneider (
)
Ordinary Members: Victor Lamzin (
)
Sine Larsen (
)
and Mariusz Jaskolski (
).
(2) Preparations for ECM-22 in Budapest (www.ecm22.mtesz.hu)
Suggestions for topics for the ECM22 were collected during the meeting of the MC-SIG at ECM21 Durban. Subsequently, the MC-SIG has been heavily involved in the definition of the programme of ECM22 in Budapest. With important help from Vilmos Fulop and in close collaboration with the Programme Committee, eight Microsymposia and two Plenary lectures were organized.
(3) Workshops and Meeting
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European macromolecular community. The main sources of funding were MAX-INF (www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum, ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
(4) Plans for 2004/05
Planned Workshops include:
(5) Other Topics
We would like to ask all members of the MCSIG to check that they have actually paid their ECA membership dues. The ECA needs the small income from this source to remain operational. To register, go to: http://www.ecanews.org -> Membership/Registration, to pay, go to: http://www.xray.cz/eca/invoice.htm.
SIG #1 Report 2002-2003
July 2003
From:
Thomas R.
Schneider,
MCSIG Secretary
(1) Elections for the Executive Committee
In a meeting held at the IUCr-XIX in Geneva, Keith Wilson resigned
from the Chairman office. Anders Liljas (Molecular Biophysics, Lund
University, Box 124, Getingevaegen 60, 221 00 Lund, Sweden,
) was elected Chairman for the next two years
by open discussion. The other current members of the Executive
Committee are: Vice-Chairman: Michael Kokkinidis
(
), Secretary: Thomas R. Schneider
(
), Ordinary Members: Victor Lamzin
(
), Sine Larsen (
), and Mariusz
Jaskolski
(
).
(2) Preparations for ECM-21 in Durban
(www.ecm21-africa.co.za)
The MC-SIG has been heavily involved in the definition of the
programme of ECM21 in Durban. In close collaboration with the
Programme Committee, ten Microsymposia and two Plenary lectures were
organized.
(3) Workshops and Meeting
Several workshops and meetings have been organized by the European
macromolecular community. The main sources of funding were MAX-INF
(www.ccp4.ac.uk/maxinf/) and the European Structural Biology Forum,
ESBF, (www.imb-jena.de/ESBF).
(4) Plans for 2003
Planned Workshops in 2003
5) Future Funding
As the MAX-INF grant has been extremely useful for supporting the
workshop activities, a follow-up project (MAX-INF2) is coordinated by
Marjolein Thunissen (University of Lund, Sweden). The grant
application was submitted to the European Union in April 2003.
(6) Other Topics
We would like to ask all members of the MCSIG to check that they have actually paid their ECA membership dues. The ECA needs the small income from this source to remain operational. To register, go to: http://www.ecanews.org -> Membership/Registration, to pay, go to: http://www.xray.cz/eca/invoice.htm.
SIG #1 Report 2001-2002
July 2002
From
:
Thomas R.
Schneider,
MCSIG Secretary
Keith S. Wilson,
MCSIG President
At the Krakow meeting, the following officers were
elected for the next three years:
Chairman:
Keith S. Wilson
(University
of York, U.K.,
(
),
Vice-Chairman:
Michael Kokkinidis
(Institute
of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, FORTH, Heraklion, Greece,
(
),
Secretary:
Thomas R. Schneider
(University
of Goettingen, Germany,
(
).
To ensure continuity, three Ordinary Members of the Executive
Committee were elected:
Victor Lamzin
(European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Hamburg, Germany,
(
),
Sine Larsen
(University
of Copenhagen, Denmark,
(
),
and
Mariusz Jaskolski
(
A Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland).
This SIG sees its major responsibility in organising up-to-the-minute
micro-symposia for the ECA annual meetings. Since there is an IUCr
meeting in 2002, there has been no need for us be active in organising
a program. However, many members of the SIG have contributed as chairs
or co-chairs
to the Geneva IUCr meeting.
The European macro-molecular community has organised a series of
workshops and discussion meetings. This has been greatly helped by
specific EU funding for MAXINF, a training program coordinated by Dr
Colin Nave of Daresbury Laboratory. Other important sources of funding
included EMBO and CCP4.
The following workshops and Courses were run:
Workshop 'Methods in Crystallography'
November 2001, EMBL Hamburg, Germany
Funded by MAXINF
CCP4 Study weekend 'High Throughput Structure Determination'
January 2002, University of York, U.K.
Funded by CCP4 & MAXINF
CCP4 Refinement Workshop
April 2002, University of York, U.K.
Funded by CCP4 & MAXINF
EMBO Practical Course 'Automated Macromolecular Structure Solution'
May 2002, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Funded by EMBO & MAXINF
SIG #1 Report 2000-2001
July 3, 2001
From Maria
Armenia Carrondo
The activities developed by the MCSIG during 2000/2001
centred on three mainitems:
As instigated for the ECM19 meeting in Nancy, the MCSIG assisted the Organising Committee of ECM 20 in the definition of topics and names for symposia, plenary lecturers and session lecturers in Krakow. Mariusz Jaskolski, a member of the MCSIG, is a member of the programme committee of ECM20, and he and K S Wilson, the MCSIG chairman, organised meetings at Nancy where extensive discussions of the programme took place. They were later followed by email discussions that shaped the final macromolecular program of the ECM20. Mariusz Jaskolski was also responsible for setting up an ECM20 satellite meeting at Krynica (close to Krakow) on "High throughput methods forstructure determination". This is being organised by Szymon Krzywda
(Poznan), Marek Brozozowski (York), and Krzysztof Lewinski (Krakow).As described in last years report, during the MCSIG meeting in August 1999in Glasgow, a strong point of debate was centred on devising ways of getting funds to organise meetings, such as the Como meeting and also the continuing existence of satellite meetings associated to ECMs. This idea was later formalised and extended to other activities such as teaching and integrating (university research-industry) workshops and methods-based schools and was presented in the form of a network to the European Union. This network is coordinated from Daresbury, currently by Colin Nave, and integrated representatives from synchrotron sites, university software and research groups, pharmaceutical companies and equipment manufacturers. Among the participants there were many MCSIG members. This network was funded from the end of 2000. It has already supported the May 2001 meeting in Como for about 180 people, and a collaborative workshop on synchrotron data collection software between the ESRF, SRS and Cambridge. Two more COMO meetings are planned. The MAXINF network has also supported EU participants attendance at a data collection workshop at Daresbury and a MAD workshop at ESRF. Most importantly for the ECA, MAXINF was able to provide funding of 20 KEuros for the Krynica satellite meeting. It should be noted that the MCSIG has now been running for three years. At the Krakow meeting, it is therefore appropriate to have elections for replacements of at least one of the current offices of the MCSIG.
