BioCAT awarded new 5 year $8.6 million P30 grant

A team of researchers led by Prof. Thomas Irving (Illinois Institute of Technology) has received a $8.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue to operate the Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT) facility at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory for the next 5 years. The facility provides access to the most intense X-ray beams in the Western Hemisphere for the study of non-crystalline biological materials such as muscle, connective tissue, amyloids, viruses, proteins, and other large biological molecules and their complexes, in order to understand the structural underpinnings of human maladies such as heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s. Several COVID 19 projects have been hosted since the pandemic began. The other members of the scientific staff at BioCAT who co-wrote the proposal are beamline scientists Weikang Ma, Srinivas Chakravarthy and Jesse Hopkins.

The new grant is a NIGMS P30 grant for Mature Synchrotron Resources, and allows BioCAT to focus on our core mission of providing cutting edge facilities and experimental capabilities for our users. Among other highlights, the grant will provide a new state of the art x-ray detector (Dectris EIGER 2 XE 9M), which has a larger area, smaller …

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Register for Everything BioSAXS 7: Getting started in biological small-angle x-ray solution scattering

BioCAT is offering its seventh intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS. Students will have four days of virtual lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. Students will also be able to mail in samples for data collection on the BioCAT beamline (Sector 18 at the APS) before the course, and there will be time during the workshop to get help with analysis of their own data.

The course will take place from 3/29/21 to 4/1/21 and is entirely virtual (via BlueJeans). See the schedule below for details.

Registration

All participants this year will be remote participants. The course will provide a virtual set of lectures and tutorials via BlueJeans, and participants will be able to mail in samples for SAXS data collection at BioCAT the week before the workshop. Participants will be able to ask questions during both lectures and tutorials, and will have time to get help with analysis of the data collected from their mail-in samples. They will also receive downloads of all course materials, including lecture slides and tutorials.

There is no cost associated with the workshop, but registration is …

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Everything BioSAXS 6 Workshop Wrap-Up

BioCAT held its sixth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS from 10/26/20-10/29/20 with 24 remote participants. There were four days of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. Participants could elect to mail in samples for data collection prior to the course, and roughly half of them sent research samples and were able to analyze their own data as part of the workshop.
Participants and instructors at the Everything BioSAXS 6 Workshop.

BioCAT held its sixth annual BioSAXS training course from 10/26/20-10/29/20. There were 24 remote participants and 6 instructors. The workshop was held entirely online, via BlueJeans, for ~4 hours each day. Before the workshop started, participants were able to mail samples to BioCAT for SAXS data collection. This data was then sent to them, and they were able to analyze it as part of the workshop.

Day one started off with an excellent overview of the basic physics of SAXS and what kind of information you can obtain from the technique by Dr. Richard Gillilan (BioSAXS beamline, CHESS). This was followed by a talk from Dr. Kushol …

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Register for Everything BioSAXS 6: Getting started in biological small-angle x-ray solution scattering

BioCAT is offering its sixth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS. Students will have four days of virtual lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. Students will also be able to mail in samples for data collection on the BioCAT beamline (Sector 18 at the APS) before the course, and there will be time during the workshop to get help with analysis of their own data.

The course will take place from 10/26/20 to 10/29/20 and is entirely virtual (via BlueJeans). See the schedule below for details.

Registration

All participants this year will be remote participants. The course will provide a virtual set of lectures and tutorials via BlueJeans, and participants will be able to mail in samples for SAXS data collection at BioCAT the week before the workshop. Participants will be able to ask questions during both lectures and tutorials, and will have time to get help with analysis of the data collected from their mail-in samples. They will also receive downloads of all course materials, including lecture slides and tutorials.

There is no cost associated with the workshop, but registration is …

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SAXS studies of RNA elements from the SARS-CoV-2 virus at BioCAT

Dr. Srinivas Chakravarthy, BioCAT beamline scientist, prepares a SEC-MALS-SAXS experiment on RNA elements from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Small-angle solution x-ray scattering and biochemical characterization studies at the BioCAT are being used to study the structure of portions of RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This RNA contains the genetic instructions the virus uses to replicate itself. These experiments are de-signed to see how these structures change when they interact with selected small molecules that are potential drug candidates. This work is a collaboration between Blanton Tolbert (Department of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University), Amanda Hargrove (Duke University), Srinivas Chakravarthy (Illinois Institute of Technology, pictured above) and a NMR consortium coordinated by Harald Schwalbe at the Goethe University (Germany).
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Everything BioSAXS 5 Workshop Wrap-Up

BioCAT held its fifth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS from 11/5/19-11/7/19 with 13 on-site participants and 24 remote participants. There was a day and a half of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. This was followed by data collection on the BioCAT beamline and data analysis help for on-site participants. Many students brought research samples for the data collection portion of the workshop.
Participants and instructors at the Everything BioSAXS 5 Workshop.

BioCAT held its fifth annual BioSAXS training course from 11/5/19-11/7/19. There were 13 on-site participants, 24 remote participants, and 6 instructors. Day one started off with an excellent overview of the basic physics of SAXS and what kind of information you can obtain from the technique by Dr. Xiaobing Zuo (12ID, APS). This was followed by a talk from Dr. Kushol Gupta (Penn. State) going over the extremely important and sometimes overlooked steps of how to actually plan and perform SAXS experiments. He covered everything from planning what data you want to collect to sample preparation for the experiment, to complementary biophysical techniques for verifying …

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Register for Everything BioSAXS 5: Getting started in biological small-angle x-ray solution scattering

BioCAT is offering its fifth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS. Students will have two days of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. This will be followed by data collection on the BioCAT beamline (Sector 18 at the APS) and data analysis help. Students are encouraged to bring 1-2 research samples for the data collection.

The course will take place from 11/5/19-11/7/19 at the APS (see schedule below for details).

For the first time ever, BioCAT is offering this course for remote participants. Remote participants will get a live-streamed feed of the lectures and all of the tutorial materials. They will not be able to collect data.

Participants and instructors at the BioCAT Everything BioSAXS 4 course in 2018.

Registration types and cost

BioCAT is offering two methods of participation for this workshop. The first is on-site, the second is remote.

On-site

The on-site participant registration includes the lectures, hands-on training, and data collection. Lunch and coffee breaks are provided. Due to time constraints on data collection we can only accept 15 on-site participants.

On-site cost: $150/$300 for academic/industrial

Remote …

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Everything BioSAXS 4 Workshop Wrap-Up

BioCAT held its fourth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS from 11/5/18-11/7/18. The 11 participants received a day and a half of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. This was followed by data collection on the BioCAT beamline and data analysis help. Many students brought research samples for the data collection portion of the workshop.
Participants and instructors at the Everything BioSAXS 4 Workshop.

BioCAT held its fourth annual BioSAXS training course from 11/5/18-11/7/18. There were 11 participants and 6 instructors. Day one started off with breakfast, followed by an excellent overview of the basic physics of SAXS and what kind of information you can obtain from the technique by Dr. Xiaobing Zuo (12ID, APS). This was followed by two talks from Dr. Lokesh Gakhar (Iowa State) going over the extremely important and sometimes overlooked steps of how to actually plan and perform SAXS experiments. He covered everything from planning what data you want to collect to sample preparation for the experiment, to recommended notes you should take while at the beamline. Following that Dr. Srinivas Chakravarthy (BioCAT …

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SAS2018: BioSAS Advanced Analysis Workshop Wrap-Up

Dr. Jesse Hopkins of BioCAT was a co-organizer of the BioSAS Advanced Analysis Workshop workshop at the XVII International Small Angle Scattering Conference (SAS2018). The workshop focused on advanced techniques for analyzing biological scattering data from three different software packages: BioXTAS RAW, US-SOMO, and SASSIE-web. Twenty three participants from around the world joined six expert instructors for the one-day workshop on October 6th 2018.
Participants and instructors at the SAS2018 BioSAS Advanced Analysis Workshop.

Solution small-angle x-ray and neutron scattering methods are having an increasing impact in structural biology largely due to advanced hardware, data analysis and modeling. The objective of this workshop was to give users hands-on practical experience with a variety of software tools that provide powerful capabilities for processing, analyzing and modeling BioSAS experimental data. This workshop introduced participants to advanced analysis techniques including deconvolving SEC-SAS data sets and utilizing molecular dynamics in combination with SAS curve fitting. The software used was the BioXTAS RAW, SASSIE-web and US-SOMO software suites. The instructors were Emre Brookes (UTHSCSA), Joseph Curtis (NIST), Jesse Hopkins (BioCAT, APS), Richard Gillilan (MacCHESS), Susan Krueger (NIST), Mattia Rocco (HSanMartino, Italy) and other available staff. Participants were given a mixture …

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Register for Everything BioSAXS 4: Getting started in biological small-angle x-ray solution scattering

BioCAT is offering its fourth intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS. Students will have a day and a half of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. This will be followed by data collection on the BioCAT beamline (Sector 18 at the APS) and data analysis help. Students are encouraged to bring 1-2 research samples for the data collection.

The course will take place from 11/5/18-11/7/18 at the APS (see schedule below for details).

Students at the BioCAT BioSAXS course in 2016.

How to register

Registration is CLOSED.

Registration is first come, first served, and limited to the first 15 participants due to time constraints on how many users can collect data during the course.

Cost

$200/$300 for academic/industrial

Lodging and Travel

Participants are responsible for their own lodging and travel. We recommend participants plan to arrive Sunday (11/4) and leave Thursday morning (11/8). Rooms are available at the Argonne Guest House.

More information

While the primary purpose of the course is educational, students may bring a limited number (1-2) of their own research samples. Prepared standard protein samples …

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