by Peter Nollert
June 1, 2010 23:05
There's really no excuse anymore not to know what you want to know. With all the massive amount of information out there on the internet it is fairly easy to learn new techniques and keep up with improved lab procedures. It's 'just' a matter of finding the gems.
Here's an example regarding Cryocrystallography, provided by Jim Pflugrath (with whom I had the honor of hands-on learning how to flash-cool harvested protein crystals, amongst other things) and Any Howard. Jim and Andy provide an overview and step-by-step info on cryocrystallography in the form of powerpoint slides & PDFs that they had apparently used during the 2008 ACA summer school . I particularly enjoyed the slides explaining proper adjustment of the cryostream, how to rescue iced-up crystals, quick-and dirty annealing and bulk solvent density matching. There are many useful tips and tricks there. Information that often does not make it into the published literature (despite new attempts to do precisely that). And some of the useful practices covered in the slides may have not yet trickled down into every crystallography lab. So check out these slides.
I'm grateful that the organizers kept these slides and a lot more up on the web, for everybody to learn about the intricate details of cooling crystals. And there's more: Check out the 2008 lecture notes covering topics such as safety, lattices & symmetry, scattering & diffraction, synchrotron radiation, conventional X-ray sources, Phasing, molecular replacement, density modificaiton, anomalous scattering, twinning, noncrystallographic symmetry. And notes on practicals covering cryocrystallography, data processing, syncrotron data collection, direct methods (BnP), model building with Coot, interpreting international tables, construct design and radiation damage.
What a feast.
Cryocrystallography by Powerpoint. If it were that easy...
Here's a big 'Thank you!!!" to the ACA school and the contributors for providing and putting up this content on protein crystallization and crystallography on the web. For free, for everybody to see.
Thank you!
Peter