Revisiting Old Models and Assumptions in Diffraction Methods for Structural Biology: Addressing the Challenges Arising from New Sources, Detectors and Data Collection Methods

This year the Diffraction Methods GRC will revisit and reassess the fundamentals of crystallography and the assumptions that lie behind them. The last few years have seen a rapid evolution in sources (FELs, diffraction limited synchrotrons, neutrons and electrons), detectors and data collection methods (serial/multi-crystal, room temperature) that has prompted a rethinking of how we should best collect and process data, especially the weak data that are now measurable with modern detectors.

At this meeting, we will discuss the current state-of-the art in crystallography, including topics such as a) new and modified algorithms for data processing, structure solution and refinement, b) advances in detector technology and how data from these new detectors are best treated, c) new approaches to creating coordinate models (including refinement against unmerged data and the generation of models that describe structures undergoing progressive changes whether from radiation damage or a biologically relevant reaction), d) utilising perturbed datasets to fully characterise macromolecular crystals, and e) extracting more information from massive datasets.