RAPIDATA AND OTHER THINGS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. One of the most widely recognized courses internationally in macromolecular crystallography methods is held at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). Since 1999, students from around the world have gathered at the NSLS every spring for RapiData, a weeklong crash course organized by Sweet, Alex Soares, and Sal Sclafani, a training component of this P41 project. It's designed to introduce participants to the best and latest equipment and techniques for macromolecular x-ray crystallography. RapiData allows students to meet and learn from the leading developers of software in the crystallography field, and then to actually use NSLS beamlines to collect data. This year, 52 students attended the workshop, which was held from April 4 - 9. Since its creation, nearly 650 students have attended this course, and we have constant requests to add more slots. Many RapiData alumni have now blossomed into crystallography experts, and they continue to refer their less-experienced colleagues to BNL to learn the initial steps of this highly specialized area of interest. We regularly get graduate students of former RapiData students. The course began with a daylong background session taught by Sweet, meant to refresh the knowledge of crystallography fundamentals for less-experienced students. The following two days were filled with lectures and tutorials taught by scientists from BNL, industry, academia, and other national labs. Next, the students were divided into groups and guided through a marathon, 60-hour data-collection session on eight NSLS beamlines. At the same time, many tutorials were underway, run by the lecturers themselves. Nearly two-thirds of the students brought their own specimens with the goal of solving the structure of a particular enzyme, while the others observed and helped. About half a dozen structures were solved during the course, each of which could be a publishable result. During the data-collection portion of the course, the students gathered each afternoon to discuss their results and produced mini lectures about their data and scientific subject. It's always really exciting to watch the students' skills develop throughout the week. Many of them come here with little or no experience in crystallography, and they leave knowing how to obtain and process real data, as well as how to locate and fix problems as they arise. That's the advantage of having such a hands-on program. There was support from this grant for the course itself, and BER/DOE provided in-kind funding with their partial support of local staff and beamline operations. Additional support was provided by Brookhaven Science Associates, the NSLS, and several equipment vendors and drug companies. In addition a special grant was provided by the International Union of Crystallography to assist seven Latin American students in attending the course. In addition, of course, training in the skills required to take and process good diffraction data are a continuous process as our scientists and PX Operators interact with outside users of our beamlines.