On Sep 20, 2008, at 2:18 PM, Jayashankar wrote:
Dear friends and crystallographers,
Are they mutually exclusive?
During One of my lab meeting ,
I told twinning in crystals are ok, because ccp4's recent releases
just need
the keyword TWIN to solve them,
I believe the closer you get to complete twinning, the more
intractable the problem gets. I don't know if the pain scales linearly
with twinning fraction.
As a new generation research student, I am now confused,
This is both normal and proper, but has nothing to do with generation.
is that I need to
learn and understand all programs(so many...but research does not
mean
relaying on them)
to solve my crystallographic problems(is that all)....
if you see all the queries in ccp4BB is just about undocumented or
misunderstood program oriented questions.
Actually there are many lively discussions about fundamental
problems. These will often arise in the context of a specific
program, but you still have to understand the problem the program is
designed to solve.
is that all i have to learn in crystallography in future.
That's up to you, but I would say no. Learn the fundamentals.
Programs will come and go.
Still upto what limitations we are now in crystallography.
this is my very naive and prime question.
1.Phase problem
This is still "the" problem. Some inroads have been made toward ab
initio solutions, but the traditional heavy-atom methods, variations
like MAD phasing, and molecular replacement remain in practice the
standard approaches for what you usually find in the PDB.
2.twin problem
see above.
3.solving intrinsically disordered proteins
Crystals give a spatial average, so there is nothing magical you can
do to overcome intrinsic disorder.
4.hetro multimeric proteins
ribosomes are I think the current upper bound
5.high order oligomers
Chromatin fibers maybe?
6.cryo crystallography
This is routine.
7.automation in high through put crystallography
The main problem is finding strong enough amphetamines to keep one
awake while reading the papers.
8.radiation damage
see cryocrystallography, and take lots of vitamin C
9.kinetic crystallography
Laue? There is now a fair body of work, but development for
irreversible enzyme systems is probably a worthwhile future goal.
10. crystal growth research (antigravity, pressure )
Anti-gravity?
11.stereo graphics
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed Macintosh user is king (as long
as the program is not X-windows-based).
if i am right all the above has been studied (....what we are not
clear
still about them),
I need an answer to motivate me in doing my research in
Crystallography.
S.Jayashankar
(A confused new generation research student)
Research Student
Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
Hannover Medical School
Germany.
