E0045

Turning Radiation Damage to Your Advantage. Raimond B.G. Ravelli¹, Martin Caffrey², Sean McSweeney³, Clemens Vonrhein⁴ and Gerard Bricogne⁴, ¹EMBL Grenoble Outstation, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, BP181, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France, ²Ohio State University,100 West 15th avenue, Columbus Ohio 43210, USA, ³ESRF, BP220, 38043 Grenoble Cedex 9, France, ⁴Global Phasing Ltd., Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge CB3 0AX, United Kingdom.

Radiation damage is considered one of the major experimental problems at our brightest synchrotron sources. It limits the amount of data that can be collected on macromolecular crystals, even at 100K. Together with the loss of higher resolution reflections, some highly specific chemical changes can occur. Recently, we have developed a method (radiation-damage induced phasing, RIP) that exploits these changes for phasing macromolecular structures [1]. In this presentation, we will discuss i) the general applicability of RIP using crystals of proteins and of nucleic acids, and ii) the development and implementation of RIP programs.

[1] Ravelli, R.B.G., Schroder Leiros, H-K., Pan, B., Caffrey, M. & McSweeney, S. (2003). Structure 11, 217-224.