High-Throughput, High-Quality Structure Determination Using Both In-House and Synchrotron X-rays
Bi-Cheng Wang, Southeast Collaboratory for Structural Genomics, University of Georgia, speaking at Protein Crystallography in Drug Discovery 2005.
Date Posted: Friday, January 13, 2006
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Launch Presentation
Abstract
As a structural genomics pilot center funded by the NIH/NIGMS, we have placed considerable emphasis on the development of cost-effective crystallographic technologies during the past four years. Cost reduction has been one of the major factors driving the search for better methods for structure production. We have also incorporated methods for ensuring highest-quality structures from high-throughput structure production.
To achieve high-throughput, high-quality structure determination, we have incorporated new approaches in each of the following six stages of a typical structure determination process: (1) crystal-driven protein production including salvaging pathways, (2) effective crystallization, (3) optimal use of in-house and synchrotron X-ray sources, (4) Direct Crystallography which enables the use of unlabelled native crystals and single-wavelength X-rays, (5) automated structure determination pipelines and (6) structure quality control to ensure the production of highest-quality structures. These technologies, which will be discussed at the conference, are also generally applicable to other research areas that require crystallography and will be made available to the scientific community. About the speaker
Dr. Bi-Cheng (B.C.) Wang obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry in 1968 from the University of Arkansas. After postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology, he moved to Pittsburgh and joined the Veterans Administration Medical Center in 1971 and later became the Associate Director of the BioCrystallography Laboratory. During this time Dr. Wang developed a powerful noise filtering (density modification) technique and a software package, which enabled the determination of macromolecular structures using only single isomorphous replacement or single-wavelength anomalous scattering (SAS/SAD) data.
This pioneering work has been the basis of today’s SAD method, including sulfur phasing using synchrotron or in-house SAS data. In 1986 Dr. Wang was appointed Professor of Crystallography and Professor of Life Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as the Ramsey-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar & Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Georgia. In 1997 he took the initiative in forming the Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT), directed the construction of SER-CAT’s synchrotron beamlines at APS, Argonne National Laboratory and has been SER-CAT Director since 1998. Dr. Wang is also the PI of the Southeast Collaboratory for Structural Genomics, a NIGMS/NIH-funded structural genomics project.
Launch Presentation