3^rd International symposium on "Development of New Structural Biology Including Hydrogen and Hydration"

at EPOCHAL TSUKUBA, Tsukuba, Japan
(http://www.epochal.or.jp/english/index.html)
December 10-12, 2001

Organized by Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)

Overview:

X-ray single crystal structure analysis has been used to determine the three dimensional structures of biological macromolecules such as proteins and DNA, to bring many of the mysteries of life sciences to light. There is already clear evidence that hydrogen atoms and water molecules surrounding proteins and DNA play a very important role in many physiological functions. However, since it is very difficult to determine the position of hydrogen atoms in protein molecules using X-ray diffraction, detailed discussion of protonation and hydration can, in many cases, be only speculative. Neutron diffraction, on the other hand, provides an experimental method of directly locating hydrogen atoms to combine with the structural information determined by X-ray diffraction and NMR techniques.

Our project has been in existence since April, 1999. to establish the new field of structural biology by including the information of protonation and hydration in protein and DNA using not only neutron diffraction experiments on a large protein/DNA single crystal, but also X-ray diffraction and NMR experiments, and computer simulations. In order to promote the project, the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) and the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) co-operate by exchanging information as well as scientists to carry out the following experiments: High resolution protein/DNA crystallography experiments using the neutron diffractometers at JAERI, and X-ray diffraction and NMR experiments, and computer simulations using the facilities at NIAS.

We have arranged an International Symposium on "Development of New Structural Biology Including Hydrogen and Hydration" where many invited speakers will give us a talk on recent advances in X-ray diffraction and NMR experiments, and computer simulations for Hydrogen and Hydration.

Oversea Speakers

Frederic Allain (ETH, Zurich)

Structures of protein-RNA protein complex by NMR. Study of the most common RNA recognition motif

Pascal Auffinger (IBMC-CNRS, Strasbourg)

Insights into the nucleic acid hydration shell structure by molecular dynamics simulations

Jon Cooper (University of Southampton)

A neutron Laue study of endothiapepsin: Implications for the aspartic proteinase mechanism

John Finney (University College London)

John Helliwell (University of Manchester)

Partial X-ray protein structures and cryo artefacts: the need for neutron room temperature protein crystallography

Alberto Podjarny (IBMC-CNRS, Strasbourg)

Edward H. Snell (NASA Laboratory for Structural Biology)

Neutrons and microgravity

Thomas Steiner (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

Dmitri Svergun (EMBL, Hamburg)

Structure analysis of biomolecules with small and medium angle X-ray and neutron scattering

Eric Westhof (IBMC-CNRS, Strasbourg)

Role of hydration in the recognition between antibiotics and RNA

Domestic Speakers

Minoru Asogawa (NEC fundamental Research laboratory)

Kazuaki Harata(AIST)

Crystallographic dissection of the thermal motion of proteins

Junichi Higo(BERI)

Protein hydration by molecular dynamics simulation: solvent density and dipole field

Masayoshi Nakasako(University of Tokyo)

Direct observation on the hydration structure changes in the domain motion of glutamate dehydrogenase by cryogenic X-ray crystallography

Hajime Saito(Himeji Institute of Technology)

Dynamics aspect of bacteriorhodopsin as revealed by solid state NMR

Masahiro Shirakawa(Yokohama City University)

Intermolecular 31P-15N and 31P-1H scalar couplings across hydrogen bonds formed between a protein and a nucleotide

Takashi Tateno(AIST)

Water molecule is an actor as well as a spectator: Computational analysis on mechanism of biological function of protein and RNA

Noritake Yasuoka(Himeji Institute of Technology)

Radical-catalyzed enzymatic reaction in vitamin B12-dependent diol dehydratase

Toshiyuki Chatake (JAERI)

Hydration in proteins and DNA

Kaori Chiba (JAERI)

Neutron structure analysis of human lysozyme

Zui Fujimoto(NIAS)

Crystal structure of aspartic proteinase at high resolution

Musti R.S. Murthy(NIAS)

Registration:

All participants will attend the symposium free of charge. Reception and Symposium Banquet will be charged.

Submission of Abstract for Poster Presentation:

All participants are invited to attend poster session. Abstract must be submitted on electronically or by mail before November 22, to H. Mizuno (mizuno@affrc.go.jp). Abstract must be written in English, on one A4 sheet by microsoft word format with the font of Times (recommended) and size of 16 points for titles and 12 points for others (authors, affiliations addresses and text) and one blank line before text. When sending by E-mail, RTF format is recommended.

Organizing Committee

	JAERI Nobuo Niimura	Tel: 029-282-5906, Fax: 029-282-5927 E-mail: niimura@kotai3.tokai.jaeri.go.jp
	NIAS Hiroshi Mizuno	Tel: 0298-38-7014, Fax: 0298-38-7408 E-mail: mizuno@affrc.go.jp 2-1-2 Kannondai, Tsukuba 305-8602, Japan