Synchrotron radiation has become an indispensable tool in macromolecular crystallography and most of the macromolecule structures deposited in the PDB are solved and refined with data collected at synchrotron sources. Some of the skills needed to make optimal use of state-of-the-art beamlines and data processing and analysis software are difficult to learn without intensive hand-on training.

The main goal of the course Rapid Data Collection and Structure Solving is to provide such an educational experience. The course has been run 16 times at NSLS (Brookhaven National Laboratory) and in 2015 it will take place for the first time at SSRL. The course will develop the ideas behind conventional methods for diffraction-data collection, will describe several different structure-solving methods, and will give students practical experience in work on their own samples.

All students are encouraged to bring their own specimens for data collection, and to bring old data for the data-reduction and structure-solving tutorials. The plan is to divide students into 8 groups. Participants without crystals will be able to practice on samples provided by the organizers and data collected on the beamlines.

On Sunday May 3 2015 we will hold a a roughly five-hour lecture course on the fundamentals of crystallography to ensure that students without much previous experience in crystallography benefit fully from the lectures and practicals during the rest of the course. The main RapiData course will begin on Monday morning, 4 May 2015. There will be lectures during Monday and part of Tuesday. The hands on tutorials will begin on Tuesday evening, and run in parallel with data collection on Wednesday and Thursday. The course will end on Friday with a recapitulation meeting.

• Bob Sweet
• Elspeth Garman
• Jim Pflugrath
• Clyde Smith
• James Holton
• Thomas Weiss
• Gerwald Jogl
• Aina Cohen
• Ana Gonzalez
• Raji Edayathumangalam
• Tom Terwilliger
• Matt Benning
• Nick Sauter
• Andreas Foerster
• Maksymilian Chruszcz
• Michael Blum
• Clemens Vonrhein
• Claus Flensburg
• Li-Wei Hung

The registration fee is $100, plus a social fee of $500. This will include all the food and course expenses not covered by grants and donations. Accommodation and transport are not covered..

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