<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><h1 align="center" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Rice University symposium to celebrate 100 years of crystallography</strong><em> </em></h1><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">HOUSTON – (Feb. 10, 2014) – Rice University and the Gulf Coast Consortia will host an all-day public symposium titled “<a href="http://www.iycr2014.org/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">International Year of Crystallography</a>: <a href="http://gcc.rice.edu/2014_Crystallography_Symposium.aspx" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">Structure Matters</a>” Feb. 14 at the <a href="http://brc.rice.edu/home/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">BioScience Research Collaborative</a>.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Experts in X-ray crystallography – the technique scientists use to determine the structure of matter at very small scales – will discuss the significance of the technology and how it’s used to visualize the structures of proteins, a critical step in the design of drugs to fight disease.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Speakers include George Phillips, the Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Rice; Yizhi Jane Tao, an associate professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice; Choel Kim, an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine; John Spence, the Richard Snell Professor of Physics at Arizona State University and director of science for the National Science Foundation (NSF) <a href="http://www.bioxfel.org/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">BioXFEL Science and Technology Center</a>; and Stephen Burley, professor and director of the <a href="http://proteomics.rutgers.edu/public/?q=content/center-integrative-proteomics-research&destination=node/6" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">Center for Integrative Proteomics Research</a> at Rutgers University.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The program will begin at 9 a.m. with poster presentations and science exhibits for high school students.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crystallography is being recognized by the United Nations on the 100th anniversary of the awarding of Nobel Prizes to its discoverers, <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/molecular-structures-the-crystal-century-1.14604" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">German physicist Max von Laue</a> and the father-son team of <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1915/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">William Henry and William Lawrence Bragg</a>. Rice researchers <a href="http://news.rice.edu/2013/11/06/rice-to-help-bring-smallest-structures-to-light-2/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">led by Phillips</a> are part of the NSF’s BioXFEL consortium, founded last year and based at the University of Buffalo, to explore the use of <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/x-ray-science-the-big-guns-1.14609" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">strong X-ray lasers</a> to detail the atomic structures of molecules with a resolution approaching the nanoscale.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The symposium is free and sponsored by the <a href="http://gcc.rice.edu/Research/Gulf_Coast_Consortum_for_Protein_Crystallography.aspx" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">Gulf Coast Consortium (GCC) for Protein Crystallography</a>, the <a href="http://naturalsciences.rice.edu/" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">Wiess School of Natural Sciences</a>, the NSF BioXFEL Science and Technology Center and the Rigaku Corp.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Who: </strong>Scientists, students and the public.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>What: “</strong>International Year of Crystallography: Structure Matters.”</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>When: </strong>Friday, Feb. 14, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Where: </strong>Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative, 6500 Main St.</p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An agenda and registration information are available at the symposium website, <a href="http://gcc.rice.edu/2014_Crystallography_Symposium.aspx" style="color: rgb(49, 52, 40); text-decoration: none;">http://gcc.rice.edu/2014_Crystallography_Symposium.aspx</a></p><p style="line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em; padding: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;">- See more at: <a href="http://news.rice.edu/2014/02/10/rice-symposium-to-celebrate-100-years-of-crystallography/#sthash.QUN4iaYX.dpuf">http://news.rice.edu/2014/02/10/rice-symposium-to-celebrate-100-years-of-crystallography/#sthash.QUN4iaYX.dpuf</a></span></p><div><font color="#333333" face="Lucida Grande, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br></font><div apple-content-edited="true">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;">George N. Phillips, Jr.<br>Ralph and Dorothy Looney Professor<br>Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology<br>Rice University, MS140<br>6100 Main Street<br>Houston, Texas 77005-1892<br>Office: +1 713.348.6951<br><a href="http://www.bioc.rice.edu/">http://www.bioc.rice.edu/</a><br><br><br></span>
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