The Murnau Conference on Structural Biology encompasses the current areas of experimental structural biology, in particular Electron Microscopy, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and X-ray Crystallography. We focus on molecular questions, the properties of biological macromolecues and their interaction in the complex environment of a living organism. The bi-annual study group meeting in Murnau is set to provide a forum to discuss the latest advances in the field.

The 5th Murnau Conference will be dedicated to Signal Transduction as a focus topic, represented in three scientific sessions.

The conference will cover the following topics, each session will involve 2-3 invited keynote lectures. Session lectures will be partly selected from submitted abstracts:

Session 1 - Intracellular Sensors and Switches
Session 2 - Methods in Structural Biology
Session 3 - Signalling Across Membranes
Session 4 - New Developments in Structural Biology
Session 5 - Quality Control and Damage Response

The Murnau Conference on Structural Biology is the biannual meeting of the study group Structural Biology of the German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (GBM).

Â

International Workshop on Phase Retrieval and Coherent Scattering

The International Workshop on Phase Retrieval and Coherent Scattering is a (mostly) biennial meeting series devoted to coherent X-ray physics. Four topics in particular will be covered:

• Imaging with coherent X-rays and electrons
• Structure and dynamics via photon correlation
• Opportunities with new sources
• Theoretical and computational methods

Previous conferences in the series have been at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, USA, May 2001; Palm Cove, Australia, June 2003; Porquerolles, France, June 2005; Asilomar, California, USA, June 2007; Warnemünde, Germany, June 2010; and Fukuoka, Japan, June 2012. In keeping with the tradition of waterside locations for most of these meetings, the conference will be held at Norris Center on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Invited Speakers

• Henry Chapman (keynote)
• Christian Schroer
• Stephan Hruszkewycz
• Yukio Takahashi
• Felisa Berenguer
• Mark Sutton (keynote)
• Jesse Clark
• Sujoy Roy
• Beatrice Ruta
• Massimo Altarelli
• Christoph Quitmann
• Gabriella Carini

Â

The 2014 Kuo Symposium on 3D Cryo-EM Molecular Imaging to be held July 28 - 30, 2014, in Shanghai, China. There will be a two-day workshop: The 7th K. H. Kuo Summer School of Electron Microscopy & Crystallography (July 26 - 27) immediately before the symposium. The symposium is partially sponsored by the K.H. Kuo Education Fund and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The scientific program is being arranged by an organizing committee that includes Huilin Li (SUNY Stony Brook, USA), Yifan Cheng (UCSF, USA), Yao Cong (SIBCB, China) and Yongning He (SIBCB, China).

As a background, the annual EM meeting series is named after the late Prof K.H. Kuo, a prominent electron microscopist who discovered quasi-crystals and first introduced cryo-EM to China, who also trained a generation of electron microscopists in China, including some of us organizing this symposium/summer school. The Kuo Education Fund was established by his over 100 former graduate students as a tribute to Kuo as a great scientist and a loving mentor. The subject of the school series alternates between biology and material science. The cryoEM meeting has evolved from a summer school aimed to bring modern cryoEM technology to Chinese students into an important international symposium in the field of cryoEM in Asia. It has witnessed rapid growth of cryoEM community in China as well as other Asia countries. The last (3rd) biological cryo-EM meeting was held in Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in September 2012 and was chaired by Hong Zhou ( http://cryoem.csp.escience.cn/dct/page/1) and attended by students from mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and Europe.

Under the auspices of the European network ESTEEM 2, the Electron Microscopy Group of the University of Cambridge is hosting a workshop on electron crystallography. This workshop will showcase the latest developments in the theory and application of electron crystallography with topics including precession electron diffraction (PED), convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED), ptychography, structure solution and structure refinement methods (direct methods, charge flipping, etc), high resolution imaging and orientation mapping.

The workshop format will be in a 'Gordon conference' style with invited lectures in the morning and special lectures in the evening, leading to informal discussion over dinner. Afternoons are kept free for further discussion, academic visits or excursions around the local area. Scientific contributions in the form of posters are encouraged and there will be a dedicated poster session on one of the Workshop evenings.

The workshop is organized as part of the European Union collaboration "Enabling Science and Technology through European Electron Microscopy (ESTEEM 2). The workshop will be held at Downing College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge.

This Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) imaging course is an advanced topics course and provides instruction and hands-on practice for getting the best possible SEM images, especially from difficult samples, or under challenging operating conditions. Signals and image generation, instrument operation, operating variables, image interpretation and applications of SEM will be studied through lectures and hands-on activities. Advanced SEM imaging topics such as very high resolution imaging and low voltage imaging will be covered.

• Sample preparation for SEM imaging   Â
  
• Optimizing microscopes for imaging
• Imaging at low vacuum
  
• Imaging at low accelerating voltages
• Very high resolution imaging
• Image analysis and interpretation

Two sessions available: 13 and 14 July 2014, and 14 and 15 July 2014

Applications of Precession Electron Diffraction

14th - 15th September 2012Â

Materials Science Centre, The University of Manchester  Â

Precession electron diffraction has become an important tool for electron crystallographers, with applications in conventional crystallography, texture mapping and both real and reciprocal space tomography. This satellite school to EMC 2012 will concentrate on all aspects of precession and its applications. Â

Through both lectures and practical classes this school intends to give delegates first-hand experience of using the technique.

Tutors: Detlef Beckers, Corrado Cuocci, Andrew N. Fitch, Mauro Gemmi, Carmelo Giacovazzo, Fabia Gozzo, Irene Margiolaki, Stavros Nicolopoulos, Rosanna Rizzi, Robert B. Von Dreele & Jonathan P. Wright.

Topics to be covered include:

• FOR Powder Crystallography: powder diffraction (experimental methods, sample preparation, detectors, synchrotron radiation), the unit cell determination, full pattern powder decomposition, space group determination, ab initio and non ab initio phasing techniques for powder diffraction data, computer applications. Protein Powder Diffraction: Overview, methods & applications.Â
• FOR Electron Crystallography: The physical bases of the electron diffraction and their special features with respect to X-ray and neutron diffraction. The experimental diffraction methods : elements of electron microscopy, traditional diffraction techniques and modern ones (the Precession Electron Diffraction (PED) and the Automated Diffraction Tomography (ADT) methods).
• Phasing via electron diffraction data: computer applications.

Student bursaries will be available to contribute to local costs or travel expenses of a limited number of applicants.Â

For registration and/ or bursary application email Dr. Partha Pratim Das: partha@upatras.grÂ

Introduction

The Electron Crystallography School â€" new methods and applications will be held at Arrhenius laboratory in Stockholm University, Sweden in June 16-20, 2012. We have invited several world-wide renounced experts in the field to give lectures covering the basics of electron crystallography as well as the frontier developments in the recent years. The topics include general crystallography, transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction methods (electron diffraction tomography and precession electron diffraction) and structure solution methods using the electron data. The school also features lab sessions both on the TEM and computers to help the students get practical experiences of applications of the methods.  Students interested in learning the basics of electron crystallography and new methods recently developed are encouraged to apply. The deadline for registration is April 30, 2012. Financial support will be provided to a limited number of Ph.D. students to cover the registration fee and part of the travel expenses. The deadline for the application of financial support is March 31st, 2012.  The "International Symposium on Electron Crystallography and X-ray diffraction - from Materials Sciences to Structural Biology” will follow immediately after the Electron Crystallography School at Arrhenius laboratory in Stockholm University June 20-22, 2012. All are also welcome to join the symposium.

Invited Speakers

1. Enrico Mugnaioli, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany 2. Paul Midgley, Cambridge University, UK 3. Jan-Pieter Abrahams, Leiden University, NL 4. Holger Klein, Institut Néel, CNRS et Université J. Fourier, France 5. Lynne McCusker, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland 6. Lukas Palatinus, Institute of Physics, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech republic 7. Xiaodong Zou, Stockholm University, Sweden 8. Peter Oleynikov, Stockholm University, Sweden 9. Sven Hovmöller, Stockholm Universtiy, Sweden 10. Junliang Sun, Stockholm Universtiy, Sweden

Purpose of the Course

In the era of nanoscience, the size of particles to be investigated gets smaller and smaller but the traditional techniques used for characterization of materials are becoming inadequate. Electron Crystallography (EC) is a powerful and sometimes the unique tool to study crystal structure and properties of nano sized materials. It is a broad branch of science comprising both academic research and industrial needs. Materials studied using EC methods vary in size and nature, ranging from inorganic nanoparticles to biological samples.Â

Exciting developments such as aberration correctors, dedicated specimen-holders, highly sensitive cameras, new data acquisition techniques, automated routines for data collection and new data processing softwares allow electron crystallographers to solve crystal structures from nano particles at atomic resolution.

The Course intends to review the structure solution using electron crystallography methods as well as novel applications; it will be divided into three major fields:

1. provide a strong background on crystallography in general and electron crystallography in particular
2. introduce students to upcoming techniques for data acquisition and data processing as well as to the state-of-the-art electron microscopy
3. cover different approaches for structure solution and derive structure-property relationship

The emphasis will be given on the following subjects: structural and charge density studies of organic molecules like pigments and drugs, protein structures, complicated inorganic and metallic materials in the amorphous, nano-, meso- and quasi-crystalline state, minerals and magnetic materials.

Third K. H. Kuo Summer School of Electron Microscopy and Crystallography

International Workshop of 3D Molecular Imaging by Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China August 8 - 12, 2010

In recent years, tremendous progress has been made in structural studies on biological macromolecules and assemblies using cryo-electron microscopy. As more and more genome projects for human and other organisms are completed, the focus of biological research is shifted to proteins, protein complexes, organelles and cells. Along with X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy, cryo-electron microscopy technologies are playing increasingly important roles in structural biology research.

To train the next generation of scientists in this exciting field, a workshop on cryo-electron microscopy of macromolecular assemblies will be held at Institute of Biophysics, Chinese academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, August 8 - 12, 2010. The workshop will give the emphasis on single particle analysis and electron tomography by cryo-electron microscopy. Both basic principles of these techniques and their state-of-the-art applications to biological systems will be taught at the school, and practical sessions will also be organized to show hand-on experience in cryo-electron microscopy as well as image processing and analysis techniques. Graduate students and postdocs who currently work in or who are interested in joining the field are particularly encouraged to attend. Importantly, a number of leading scientists will be lecturing at the school; young scientists will have plenty of opportunities to directly interact with these leading scientists.

5 days training on the aspect of Combined Analysis by X-ray and Neutron Scattering and introduction to the MAUD software

The objectives of this workshop is to provide students and researchers (academic or not) the required knowledge to characterize structure, microstructure, phase, texture, stress and reflectivity by “Combined Analysis using X-ray and neutron scattering techniques“. This will be treated from several case samples including: thin films and bulk materials, anisotropic and/or polyphased materials, nanomaterials, diverse experimental arrangements including multi-detectors, etc.

Each type of analysis will be considered individually and then integrated into the combined analysis software MAUD. Some specific examples will be studied using X-ray and neutron experimental data. Full afternoons are dedicated to training.Â

To support the theory and add a practical dimension to this workshop, technical aspects will be demonstrated on CRISMAT laboratory and INEL X-ray instruments. Â

This workshop is the best opportunity to come and meet people from various fields and exchange on technical interests and experiences.

The school is intended to give a general overview of modern methods in electron crystallography with a strong accent on electron diffraction tomography. The students will learn basics of crystallography, image and diffraction pattern formation in a transmission electron microscope and most common methods of structure analysis using electron scattering data. Two transmission electron microscopy (TEM) labs are available in order to get an extended experience in diffraction tomographic data acquisition â€" at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the University of Mainz. Diverse data processing approaches will be presented during afternoon seminars. With the knowledge gained from the school the participants will be able to run tomographic experiments on their own and have a deep understanding of data processing upon their return to the home institution.  Basic crystallographic or TEM knowledge is desired; nevertheless both topics will be covered in a deep and deductive way. Students from diverse fields (chemistry, physics, biology, etc.) are encouraged to apply.