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Since it was powder diffraction that made me fall in love with
crystallography as an undergrad (before switching to protein
crystallography as a grad student), I was obviously very excited when
I first heard about protein powder diffraction in a meeting some years
ago, in a lecture by Andy Fitch from the ESRF. I've exchanged some
mails with him and also Irene Margiolaki, who were very kind and sent
me lots of unpublished stuff and experimental hints (sample
preparation is probably the most difficult part in protein powder
diffraction). A good idea would be to contact them (it may be easy to
find their info in the ESRF website).

The GSAS groups was also working on this, and the major difference,
from what I remember, is that they were doing all the process (until
refinement) in the same way that was done with regular powder samples
(with a modified version of the GSAS program), while the group in ESRF
converted the powder data to MTZs and then used PX software.

By that time it seemed that they were the only groups doing it, but a
quick search in pubmed using "protein powder diffraction" shows some
recent articles from other groups, so it seems it's pretty much alive.
The following articles are from 2011:

X-ray diffraction from membrane protein nanocrystals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21190672

Exploiting powder X-ray diffraction for direct structure determination
in structural biology: the P2X4 receptor trafficking motif YEQGL.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21382498

Lucas Bleicher

2011/11/26 REX PALMER <[log in to unmask]>:
> Does anyone have an up-to-date account of protein structure anlysis from
> powders?
>
>
> Rex Palmer
> http://www.bbk.ac.uk/biology/our-staff/emeritus-staff
> http://rexpalmer2010.homestead.com