Dear All,

Just to remind you that the closing date for registration is now just
under 3 weeks away (22nd June).

Best wishes

Elspeth Garman (Chair) and Andrew Leslie (Vice Chair)

Gordon Research Conference on Diffraction Methods in Structural Biology
            July 13-18, 2008, Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, USA


The 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Diffraction Methods in Structural
Biology will encompass advances in the methodology for macromolecular
X-ray crystallography, and other diffraction/scattering applications.

The full confirmed programme and timetable for the meeting can now be
found below and at:

http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?year=2008&program=diffrac

as well as details on how to register (registration closes on 22nd June
2008 but attendance is limited to 125 researchers).

All macromolecular crystallographers interested in Methods development
are encouraged to apply. To promote a lively meeting, we hope that all
participants will present a poster and contribute to the discussions.

*Confirmed Program as at 8th  May 2008.*

*MACROMOLECULAR STRUCTURES: PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES *

Discussion Leader: *Janet Smith* (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,
USA)

*Jens Preben Morth* (Aarhus University, Denmark)
"Structure determination of the sodium-potassium pump"

*Jack Johnson* (Scripps Research Institute, USA)
"Crystallography of Viral Maturation Intermediates: Large Unit Cells,
Particle Dynamics,
and Energy Landscapes"

*EXPERIMENTAL ASPECTS*

Discussion Leader: *James Holton* (University of California, Berkeley,
USA)

*Douglas Juers* (Whitman College, USA)
"Rational approaches to cryo-crystallography protocols"

*Zbyszek Dauter* (Frederick Cancer Institute, USA)
"A thoughtful approach to data collection"

*Eddie Snell* (Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute, USA)
"Are X-rays damaging to structural biology? A case study with xylose
isomerase"

*Martin Weik* (Institut de Biologie Structurale, Grenoble, France)
"Temperature-controlled cryo-crystallography to study the structural
dynamics of proteins"

*COMPLEMENTARY TECHNIQUES*

Discussion Leader: *Peter Kuhn* (Scripps Research Institute, USA)

*Junko Yano* (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA)
"Combination of XAS and XRD for studying a high-resolution structure of
the photosynthetic water-splitting catalyst"

*Dean Myles* (Oak Ridge National Laboratory USA)
"New opportunities for neutron structural biology"

*Carrie Wilmot* (University of Minnesota, USA)
"Single crystal spectroscopy coupled to crystallography"

*FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN SYNCHROTRON BASED MACROMOLECULAR CRYSTALLOGRAPHY *

Discussion Leader: *Elizabeth Duke* (Diamond Light Source, UK)

*Soichi Wakatsuki* (KEK, Japan)
"Microfocus and low energy PX developments looking towards next
generation synchrotron sources"

*Ed Mitchell* (ESRF, Grenoble, France)
"Bigger, better, faster, more: The ESRF Upgrade Programme"

*Aina Cohen* (SSRL, USA)
"Automation, Robotics and Remote Access at the SSRL Protein
Crystallography Beam Lines"

*Frank von Delft* (Structural Genomics Consortium, Oxford, UK)
"A User's Wish: An Experiment-Focussed Beamline Interface"

*EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES*

Discussion Leader: *Andrew Leslie* (MRC-LMB, Cambridge, UK)

*Robert F. Fischetti* (GM/CA-CAT, Argonne National Laboratory, USA)
"Where have all the photoelectrons gone?"

*Clemens Schulze-Briese* (Swiss Light Source, Villigen, Switzerland)
"PILATUS 6M - the first year of regular user operation"

*COMPUTATIONAL METHODS*

Discussion Leader: *Airlie McCoy* (University of Cambridge, UK)

*Sasha Popov* (ESRF, Grenoble, France)
"BEST SAD data collection"

*Paul Adams* (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, USA)
"Automated structure solution with PHENIX"

*Kevin Cowtan* (University of York, UK)
"The 3 R's of automated model building: R-factors, resolution, and
refinement"

*George Phillips* (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)
"Interpretation of electron density maps from protein crystals"

*CHALLENGING PROBLEMS / MEMBRANE PROTEINS *

Discussion Leader: *Tom Terwilliger* (Los Alamos National Laboratory,
USA)

*Chris Tate* (LMB-MRC Cambridge, UK)
"Thermostabilisation and structure determination of a beta1 adrenergic
receptor"

*Mike Lawrence* (The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical
Research, Melbourne, Australia)
"Pursuit of the structure of the human insulin receptor ectodomain"

*Mark Mayer* (NIH, Bethesda, USA)
"Structure and function of allosteric ion binding sites in glutamate
receptor ligand binding domains"

*TALKS SELECTED FROM POSTERS*

*VALIDATION*
Discussion Leader: *Ana Gonzales* (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation
Laboratory, USA)

*Gerard Kleywegt* (University of Uppsala, Sweden)
"Validation"

*Jane Richardson* (Duke University, USA)
"MolProbity Progress: RNA, Auto-corrections, and H redux"

*IMAGING METHODS OF THE FUTURE*

Discussion Leader: *Raimond Ravelli* (Leiden University Medical Centre,
The Netherlands)

*Steve Ludtke* (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA)
"Resolution and Molecular Motion, Frontiers in CryoEM"

*Carolyn Larabell* (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
"Putting molecules in context with soft X-ray tomography"