Dear All, This is not Phenix related but we do see a lot of representation from Phenix developers and users at this conference. The 2016 Diffraction Methods in Structural Biology Gordon Research Conference (GRC) will be held at Bates College in Maine from July 17,to July 22nd 2016 - immediately before the American Crystallography Association Annual Meeting. The theme of this year's conference is "Probing the Structure and Dynamics of Macromolecules" and the conference celebrates its 40 year anniversary. Current details are available at https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=11655. Program details are below, it promises to be an exciting. Arwen Pearson (co-chair) and I would like to invite you to consider attending the conference. Topics to be covered include new instruments and opportunities on the horizon, methods to improve maps and models, complementary approaches, resolving dynamics, the interplay between XFEL and synchrotron, new diffraction developments, and structure beyond Bragg diffraction. Many of the worlds experts in these areas will be at the meeting and we encourage the participation of every level of expertise to cross-pollinate the field. We will also have an opportunity for selected poster presenters to present talks at the meeting. Applications for the conference are now being accepted and will continue to be accepted until we are full.

From a personal perspective this is probably one of the best meetings for those interested in the nuts and bolts of diffraction methods. It is also a unique opportunity to meet many of the key members of the field. It is a friendly and productive conference, and an exciting one in terms of getting a preview of the future. We encourage you to attend, take part in great science, and also interact in a less formal social and sometimes sporting atmosphere.

This will also be the second year that a related Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) is run. This is a meeting organized for and by post-docs and graduate students. Drs. Rike Mueller-Werkmeister and Bradely Hintze are organizing this with details at https://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=16486. We strongly encourage laboratories with an interest in Diffraction Methods in Structural Biology to support their students in attending both the GRS and the GRC with the GRS serving as a useful introduction to the larger conference. We are still raising funds for the GRS and GRC, in particular to enable younger scientists to attend. We are grateful and thank those who have supported us so far, and also those that are in the process of doing so. We are actively looking for further sponsorship. Summer is a full time for meetings but this is going to be a very worthwhile one. Please pass this onto interested colleagues. Thanks, Eddie and Arwen Sunday 17th of July Keynote Session: Structure and Dynamics Discussion Leader: Elspeth Garman (University of Oxford, United Kingdom) * Carrie Wilmot (University of Minnesota, USA) MauG Catalysis: A Tale of Ferryl Heme, Radicals and Long-Distance Hopping * Joseph Ferrara (Rigaku Americas Corporation, USA) A special talk to look back over 40 years of this GRC and describe the developments in the field since the first Diffraction Methods Meeting. Monday 18th July New Instruments and Opportunities Discussion Leader: Sean McSweeny (NSLS-II, USA) * Armin Wagner (Diamond Light Source, United Kingdom) In-Vacuum Long-Wavelength Crystallography - First Results * Matthew Bowler (Synchrotron Crystallography Group, France) Fully Automatic Characterization and Data Collection: A New Tool for Structural Biologist * Marjolein Thunnissen (MAX IV Laboratory, Sweden) Possibilities for Structural and Dynamical Studies on Proteins at MAX IV * Esko Oskanen (European Spallation Source, Sweden) Structural Biology with Neutrons - Opportunities at the European Spallation Source * William Graves (Arizona State University) Electron Diffraction as a Method to Produce a Tabletop XFEL Improving Maps and Models Discussion Leader: Airlie McCoy (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) * Elspeth Garman (University of Oxford, United Kingdom) Unambiguous Metal Identification and Accurate Stoichiometric Measurements in Proteins * Frank Von Delft (Structural Genomics Consortium, United Kingdom) PANDDA: A Multi-Dataset Method for Electron Density Signal Extraction of Superposed States such as Low-Occupancy Ligands * James Fraser (University of California, San Francisco, USA) Birth of the Cool: Multitemperature X-Ray Crystallography to Reveal Protein Conformational Heterogeneity * Paul Adams (Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, USA) New Tools for Interpretation of Cryo-EM Maps Tuesday 19th of July Structural Biology Requires Multiple Methods Discussion Leader: Nozomi Ando (Princeton University, USA) * Allison Edwards (Bragg Institute, Australia) Neutron Diffraction from Protein Crystals * Neil Ranson (University of Leeds, United Kingdom) Experiences and Results Using the New Direct Electron Detectors for CryoEM * Saikrishnan Kayarat (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, India) Mechanism of a Motor-Driven Endonuclease: Combining Structural and Single-Molecule Approaches * Nikolai Skrynnikov (Purdue University) Motions of Protein Molecules Within the Crystalline Lattice * Sarah Bowman (MIT) What Can Spectroscopic Techniques Tell You About Your Crystal Dynamically Resolved Methods Discussion Leader: Carrie Wilmot (University of Minnesota, USA) * Thomas Barends (Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research, Germany) Ultrafast Functional Motions in Myoglobin Probed by Serial Femtosecond Crystallography * Henrike Muller-Werkmeister (University of Toronto, Canada) Time-Resolved S(F)X Studies with a Fixed Target * Gergely Katona (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) An Interleaved Data Recording Method for Studying the Non-Thermal Effect of Terahertz Radiation on Protein Crystals * Petra Fromme (Arizona State University, USA) Time-Resolved Femtosecond Crystallography: Towards Molecular Movies of Biomolecules 'In Action' Wednesday 20th July Hybridization of Synchrotron and XFEL Approaches Discussion Leader: Aina Cohen (SSRL, USA) * Elizabeth Baxter (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, USA) Alternative Methods for High Throughput Data Collection * Manfred Burghammer (ESRF, France) Recent Developments in Serial Micro-/Nano-Beam Diffraction X-Ray Techniques at ID13, ESRF * Helen Ginn (University of Oxford, United Kingdom) Development of Methods in XFEL Analysis * Thomas White (CFEL, Germany) Advances in Data Processing for Serial Femtosecond Crystallography * Allen Orville (Diamond Light Source, UK) Dynamic Structural Biology: Awakened and Enabled by New Sources and Complementary Methods Developments in Diffraction Methods Discussion Leader: Nadia Zatsepin (Arizona State University) * Isabel Uson (ICREA and the Spanish Research Council, Spain) Arcimboldo on Tour * Kartik Ayyer (CFEL, Germany) Coherent Diffractive Imaging as a Structure Determination Tool for Disordered Crystals * Andrea Thorne (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, United Kingdom) Developments in Diffraction Data Analysis Thursday 21st July Selected Poster Presentations: New Cool Methods and Hot New Structures Discussion Leader: James Fraser (University of California, San Francisco, USA) Nine posters selected from the meeting for presentation. Structural and Dynamical Information Beyond Bragg Discussion Leader: James Holton (Advanced Light Source, USA) * Michael Wall (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA) Probing Protein Structural Dynamics Using Diffuse X-Ray Scattering * Robert Rambo (Diamond Light Source Ltd, United Kingdom) A Real-Space Modelling Algorithm for SAXS Using Information Theory and Computational Geometry * Nozomi Ando (Princeton University, USA) Untangling Protein Allostery Edward Snell Ph.D. CEO Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute Assistant Prof. Department of Structural Biology, University at Buffalo 700 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203-1102 Phone: (716) 898 8631 Fax: (716) 898 8660 Skype: eddie.snell Email: [email protected] Heisenberg was probably here!