MACROMOLECULAR CRYSTALLOGRAPHY AT IUSM

We are located on the fourth floor of the new Medical Science Building in rooms 4007-4032. There are seven primary investigators who utilize X-ray methods to solve biological problems in their laboratories. These investigators include Dr. Thomas Hurley, Dr. Zhong-Yin Zhang, Dr. Millie Georgiadis,  Dr. Qizhuang Ye, Dr. Yuichiro Takagi, Dr. Samy Meroueh, and Dr. Quyen Hoang. 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDY

There are two graduate programs through which graduate students can obtain degrees from their research in crystallography; the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate program and the interdisciplinary Medical Biophysics program.  Both graduate programs participate in the IBMG open-enrollment graduate program as the central portal for graduate applicants.

FACILITIES

In the X-ray facility we have a RAXIS IV++ image plate detector mounted on a Rigaku H2R rotating anode generator equipped with the Osmic optics system. A liquid nitrogen crystal cooling system manufactured by Molecular Structure Corporation keeps our crystals cool and carefree. Associated with the facility are 6 Linux-based PC workstations and 3 SGI workstations.

The picture on the right shows Dr. Hurley and Ph.D. student Heather Larson (2007 graduate) setting up a data collection on our older system for a crystal of human ALDH in the X-ray facility and below the resulting diffraction pattern.

DATA COLLECTION AT SYNCHROTRONS

We collect much of our data now at synchrotron radiation sources, such as the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven, the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne, or the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley. These facilities provide extremely bright sources of X-rays that dramatically improve both the resolution and quality of our data. In fact, Indiana University is a participating member of the Molecular Biology Consortium at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley.