April 2026 - phenixbb - phenix-online.org

Industrial Biostructures America (IBA) Conference 2026
by Xu, Rui [JRDUS] 05 Nov '26

05 Nov '26

We are pleased to share that the Industrial Biostructures America<https://www.industrialbiostructuresamerica.org/> (IBA) Conference will return to the Boston/Cambridge area on May 11-12, 2026, hosted at Sanofi's Cambridge Crossing R&D campus. IBA is a forum for the structural biology community across North America, bringing together leading voices to share insights on the application of structural biology technologies to drug discovery challenges across the industry. This event also fosters valuable networking opportunities and collaborative discussions that drive our field forward. Registration is now open, with early-bird rates before March 1, 2026. Note that the last meeting sold out, so please ensure you reserve your spot. Conference information is available at Industrial Biostructures America<https://www.industrialbiostructuresamerica.org/> along with registration and abstract submission forms. Scientific sessions will cover the following topics: * Proximity & fragments * Membrane protein structure * Conformational dynamics & allostery * Cryo-EM & practical applications of state-of-the-art techniques * Biologics and protein engineering * AI/ML in drug discovery and the future of structural biology For exhibitor/sponsorship opportunities or any other questions, please contact us at iba(a)proteros.com. Looking forward to seeing you in May! Rui Xu Sr. Principal Scientist Johnson and Johnson

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DEN restraints and ECHT disorder models
by Roberto Battistutta 19 Oct '26

19 Oct '26

Dear all, From which version of Phenix are the DEN restraints and ECHT disorder models implemented in the ensemble refinement (as described in Ploscariu, N., Burnley, T., Gros, P. & Pearce, N. M. (2021). Improving sampling of crystallographic disorder in ensemble refinement. Acta Cryst. D77, 1357-1364)? Thank you very much, Roberto. Roberto Battistutta Associate Professor Department of Chemical Sciences University of Padua via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova - ITALY tel. +39.049.827.5262 fax. +39.049.827.5829 roberto.battistutta(a)unipd.it

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new BUILT of XDS
by kay.diederichs＠uni-konstanz.de 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear XDS users in the Phenix community, as reported by users, and confirmed in a larger-scale comparison by GlobalPhasing, the BUILT=20240723 of XDS Version 20240630 leads to problems for some datasets when compared with (the expired) XDS Version 20230630. (it may be better than the 20230630 version for other datasets!). An improved BUILT=20241002 of the 20240630 version is available (all platforms) from https://xds.mr.mpg.de/html_doc/downloading.html for non-commercial (academic) users (commercial users have their own arrangements). In my/our testing, it is at least as good as version 20230630, and often better. Please install and use this instead of BUILT=20240723. If you still find deficiencies, please contact me or Wolfgang Kabsch - but be prepared to share the raw data (confidentially, of course). To enable comparisons, the old XDS version 20230630 was re-released for Linux by Wolfgang Kabsch with expiration date 2025-Mar-31; the link to its XDS_old.tar.gz is at https://xds.mr.mpg.de/ . Best wishes, Kay

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real space refine ADPs
by Leonid Sazanov 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Hi, according to online description phenix.real_space_refine should refine only group ADPs per residue. However, in practice after the run with ADP included in strategy the recent versions refine individual B-factors per atom. They seem to look OK, but I wonder if this is a beta feature or fully implemented by now? Many thanks Leonid -- Prof. Leonid Sazanov FRS Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) Am Campus 1 A-3400 Klosterneuburg Austria Phone: +43 2243 9000 3026 E-mail: sazanov(a)ist.ac.at

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Temperature shift alters unit cell of insulin: an issue
by Esra A 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear Phenix community, I performed a temperature shift data collection for di-hexamer insulin. I collected single crystal data at 100K, 200K, and 300K, respectively After processing the data, I noticed that the unit cell of the 100K dataset is distinct from 200K and 300K. 100K dataset = 78.2182 78.2182 79.3565 90 90 120 (assume that this is di-hexamer) 200K dataset = 78.3157 78.3157 39.6367 90 90 120 (it is hexamer) 300K dataset = 80.7109 80.7109 39.6399 90 90 120 (it is hexamer) Even if I completed the structure determination of 200K and 300K successfully, I couldn't complete the molecular replacement of the 100K dataset due to the "*The composition entered will not fit in the unit cell volume*" error message. I tried every "copies" and "mass" parameter in *automr *script. However, i got the error message every run. I can share with you the mtz and reference pdb file, if needed. Could you help me, please? Where am I making a mistake? Thank you very much. Sincerely, Esra Ayan

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Building Rosetta for Phenix
by Martin Malý 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear colleagues, I am dealing with a low resolution data set (~4 A, protein crystal structure) so I would like to explore phenix.rosetta_refine. I followed the instructions at https://phenix-online.org/documentation/reference/rosetta_install.html . I applied the patch in ${PHENIX_ROSETTA_PATH}/main/source/tools/build/site.settings . After several minutes of compilation (command rosetta.build_phenix_interface), I got an error. I re-run the command to get a log file which I'm attaching. Please don't you have any idea what's wrong? I use Ubuntu 22.04. Thank you. Best regards, Martin

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help for the 4.3 A dataset
by princeadam＠163.com 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear colleagues, I am currently engaged in an endeavor to unravel the crystal structure through molecular replacement techniques. Regrettably, the resolution attained stands at a rather low mark, approximately 4.3 Angstroms, which poses significant challenges. Despite exhaustive efforts directed towards optimizing the crystal conditions, there has been no discernible improvement in the resolution. The structure in question is confined to a specific domain, and we have at our disposal two distinct conformational models sourced from the PDB database: one derived from X-ray data and the other from Cryo-EM. Our prime objective is to meticulously discern which of these two conformations aligns most accurately with our experimental context. To this end, we have employed both structures (X-ray and Cryo-EM) as templates for molecular replacement, yet the refinement process has hit a roadblock, hindering our progress. We are seeking a collaborator with experience in dealing with low-resolution data to assist in solving the structure. We are open to sharing first or corresponding authorships in the near future for this paper. Warm regards Hui

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AQuaRef - issues with torch-cluster installation
by Martin Malý 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear colleagues, I'm trying to install AQuaRef. However, I'm struggling with running `bash config/update_phenix.sh aimnet2` which is part of `bash build_into_phenix.sh aimnet2`. This script wants to install the python package torch-cluster. However, I'm getting the error: /opt/phenix/phenix-dev-5480/conda_base/lib/python3.9/site-packages/torch/include/torch/csrc/python_headers.h:12:10: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory 12 | #include <Python.h> | ^~~~~~~~~~ compilation terminated. error: command '/usr/bin/gcc' failed with exit code 1 [end of output] I'm getting the same error when I tried to install only this package using the command `qrefine.python -m pip install torch-cluster`. I have a laptop with Ubuntu 22.04. I have all the usual development packages installed (build-essential, linux-headers, gcc, g++, ...). According Python, I have libpython3-dev, libpython3.10-dev, python3-dev, python3.10-dev. I can see that qrefine.python has a version of 3.9, so I also installed libpython3.9-dev, python3.9-dev and python3.9-distutils from ppa:deadsnakes/ppa but it did not help. I am also attaching a full log from the torch-cluster installation. It seems that the package torch has been installed successfully in prior. Do you have please an idea what is wrong and how to fix it? Thank you. Martin

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About cryo-EM map sharpening in Phenix
by Shanti Pal Gangwar 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Hello everyone, I'm working on anisotropic map sharpening in Phenix version 1.21-5207-00 with a cryo-EM map of a multiprotein complex. Should I provide the sequence files for each component individually, or would it be better to compile all the sequences into a single file? In addition, shall I provide the full sequence even if a segment of the protein is not resolved in the map? I would appreciate any advice! Shanti Pal

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working with composite models
by Dmitry Semchonok 06 Jun '26

06 Jun '26

Dear Colleagues, We're encountering an issue with composite model refinement and would appreciate your advice. Our scenario: 1. We built two separate models based on two subtracted maps of a single complex. 2. We have a lower-resolution map of the full complex. 3. We merged the two models into the full complex and refined it against the full map. The problem: When refining the merged model against the full map using real-space refinement in Phenix, the clashscore progressively worsens. Has anyone experienced similar issues, or can you offer suggestions on addressing this problem? Thank you for your insights. Best regards, Dmitry

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