TITLE:

WHERE DO MOLECULAR MODELS COME FROM?

DATE:

Friday, February 27th, 2009

TIME:

3:30 PM

LOCATION:

GMCS 214

SPEAKER:

Tom Huxford, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, San Diego State University

ABSTRACT:

Many areas of both experimental and computational biology rely heavily on molecular models. Â The workhorse of experimental macromolecular structure determination is x-ray crystallography. Modern macromolecular x-ray crystallography relies heavily upon technical advances of the late 20th century. Â Chief among these are recombinant DNA technology, advances in computational power and algorithm development, and the implementation of high flux and tunable monochromatic x-rays from synchrotron light sources. Â The principle impediments that remain in determining an x-ray crystal structure are preparation of the crystalline sample and obtaining a suitable estimate of phases for initial electron density map calculations. Â It is important that users of atomic coordinate files derived from x-ray crystallographic analysis have some understanding of how and with what type of precision their model was determined. Â This seminar will lay out the hurdles that must be cleared during the successful determination of a macromolecule by x-ray crystallography. Â Those in attendance will be able to identify how these steps were carried out in any particular structural study and the means for evaluating the quality and usefulness of the resulting model. Finally, an attempt will be made to identify those areas in which computational biology will continue to make contributions to the development of this invaluable technique.

HOST:

Jose Castillo

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