Protein Function in Time and Space: Insights from Diffraction Experiments

Diamond is delighted to announce it is to run a fifth synchrotron radiation school from the 19th to the 23rd September 2016.Â

It will run on very similar lines to the very successful SR Schools in 2014, 2012 and 2010 with the aim being to provide postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers, who have little experience of SR, a broad-based introduction to many of the different types of experiments conducted using SR. It is largely aimed at physical scientists, but life scientists are welcome to apply.Â
The school gives attendees the opportunity to obtain hands-on practical experience of performing an experiment on several of the Diamond beamlines. At least 14 beamlines will be participating in the school.
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The school will be co-located at Diamond and Jesus College, Oxford, with participants staying in Oxford.
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The format of the school will be 2 days of lectures on SR methods, 2 days of experiments on the Diamond beamlines and on the final day there will be a symposium with 5 leading synchrotron practitioners talking about some of their research.
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The course is always over-subscribed, thus all registrants are required to complete an application form. Â
Priority will be given to those people in the earliest stage of their research career and who have definite plans to use Diamond.Â
The strength of the application and the statement from the applicant's referee are crucial to Diamond in selecting attendees for the course.Â
Given the expected over-subscription, registrants are expected to attend the entire course, thus if you apply please ensure you are available for the whole week.
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Applications for the course will close on 25th May 2016. It is expected that applicants will be notified if they have obtained a place within 2 weeks of that date.
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The SR School is free to attend and all accommodation and meals are provided free for the duration of the course. Students will need to fund their own travel and transport to the course.
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The GIAN-CEM3DIP practical course will cover :

• 3D Electron Microscopy: History and Basic Principles
• Biological sample and specimen preparation methods for TEM
• TEM- principles, image formation , particle detection, Fourier Transform, Convolution, CTF, PSF, Resolution and FSC
• Image processing, Point group symmetries, Classification, Orientation and Heterogenity of particles
• Getting the first model using Conical Tilt and Projection Matching
• Single particle CryoEM and 3D reconstruction
• Challenges of in-situ structural biology
• Principles and applications of Cryo Tomography. Cellular Tomography and Subtomogram averaging.
• Refinement of atomic models against CryoEM maps, Flexible fitting, Validation, Assessment and Data deposition.
• Hybrid methods: Protein Crystallography, Computational methods and CryoEM

• Julian Oberdisse
  Universite Montpellier 2, Montpellier, France
  Lecture title: (not yet published)Â
• Tobias Unruh
  Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany
  Lecture title: Structure of the solid liquid interface of funtionalized nanoparticles as seen by SAXS/SANS studies
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• Melissa Sharp
  European Spallation Source ERIC, Lund, Sweden
  Lecture title: Probing the structure and dynamics of proteins using neutron scattering
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• Ilja Voets
  Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
  Lecture title: A new angle to single chain polymeric nanoparticles
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• Francisco Monroy
  Dpt. Physical Chemistry, University Complutense, Madrid, Spain
  Lecture title: (not yet published)

From Nanostructures to Microcircuits in Health and Disease

Technologies in Defining Molecular Structure and Function

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• Keynote Session: Biomolecular Processes
  (Gary Martin / Thomas Steitz)
• Protein Structure
  (Shyam Vyas / Irina Gutsche / Timothy Keiderling / Prasad Polavarapu)
• Protein Dynamics
  (Sonia Rodriguez / Peter Wright / Mei Hong / Dorothee Kern)
• Computational Chemistry in Structural Elucidation
  (Roy Helmy / Lyndon Emsley / Gaetano Montelione / Kendall Houk)
• Advances in Crystallography
  (Gaetano Montelione / Makoto Fujita / Ian Wilson)
• Mass Spectrometry in Biological/Biomarker Characterization
  (Sue Pan / Graham Cooks / Julia Laskin / John Engen)
• Separation Sciences
  (Wes Schafer / Bezhan Chankvetadze / Attila Felinger / Eli Grushka)
• Pharmaceutical Applications
  (Dorothee Kern / Michael Kress / Gary Martin / Mark Strohmeier)
• Microscale Structural Analysis
  (Roger Kautz / Marcel Jaspars / Aaron Lewis)

Interactions Between Organic and Inorganic Materials Across Time and Length Scales

Translating Biological Mechanisms into Functional Materials

Organized by the Biochemical Society (UK) and to be held at Charles Darwin House, London.

This training event offers a hands-on workshop to help with the understanding and optimization of diffraction data in order to enable structure determination.
This training is especially useful for early-stage PhD students, but anyone interested in understanding better the key step of 'data reduction' to consider this introductory-level course is welcome to attend.

Discussion topics covered will include:

• Crystals, lattices, point and space groups
• Diffraction and the Ewald sphere
• Indexing and space group determination
• Scaling, mosaicity, anisotropy, twinning
• XDS, MOSFLM and DIALS packages

The training event will be delivered by leading software developers and experts in the field who will mentor participants, including Karine Sparta (Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, Germany), Phil Evans (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK), Bill Shepard (SOLEIL synchrotron, France), Harry Powell (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK), Kay Diederichs (University of Konstanz, Germany) and Graeme Winter (Diamond Light Source, UK).

There are a limited number of Student Bursaries available

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The 4th International Soft Matter Conference will be held at the Alpexpo Alpes Congrès in Grenoble, France from 12-16th September 2016. Three previous conferences were held in Aachen (2007), Granada (2010) and Rome (2013), and brought together up to 800 experimentalists and theorists working in the Soft Matter field.

The conference covers both the fundamental and applied aspects of Soft Matter and Complex Systems.

Local organisers of ISMC2016 include scientists from the large-scale facilities ILL and ESRF as well as from the Grenoble University and other research organisations such as CEA, CNRS, and INPG in Grenoble.

Topics

• Active Matter
• Biomaterials
• Cellular Biophysics
• Colloids and Polymers (including Biopolymers)
• Organisation and Dynamical Processes in Complex Fluids
• Functional Soft Materials and Soft Matter Technology
• Self Assembly
• Microfluidics and Interfacial Phenomena
• Soft Glasses, Gels and Foam

Exploring Mechanisms Behind Biomineral Formation and Function

New Frontiers in Energy Harvesting and Storage from Biological Systems to Nanostructured Materials

Exploring, Understanding and Applying the Diversity of One-Carbon Metabolism