MuscleX: Muscle X-ray Diffraction Workshop Wrap-Up

The MuscleX workshop was a great success with 63 registered attendees!

BioCAT Workshop Itinerary

Madison, Wisconsin 5/23/2018

1:00 PM BioCAT Update and Overview - Tom Irving (BioCAT)

1:30 PM New opportunities with intact and skinned skeletal muscle - Weikang Ma (BioCAT)

2:00 PM Best Practices for X-ray Diffraction Experiments with Cardiac Muscle - Vickie Yuan (U Washington)

2:30 PM Multiscale modeling, X-ray patterns, and estimation of forces on myofilaments in intact muscle - Srba Mijailovich (IIT)

3:00 PM Break

3:20 PM New opportunities for SAXS and muscle proteins - Jesse Hopkins (BioCAT)

3:40 PM MuscleX: New tools for analysis of X-ray diffraction patterns - Weikang Ma (BioCAT)

4:00 PM Structured Discussion: Strategic Directions for the Muscle Diffraction Program at BioCAT - Massimo Reconditi (U. Florence) and Pieter de Tombe (Imperial College, London)

5:00 PM Adjourn

5:00 - 6:00 no host cash bar reception

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MuscleX: Muscle X-ray Diffraction Workshop

We are pleased to announce the first BioCAT Muscle X-ray Diffraction Workshop on Wednesday 5/23/2018, from 1 to 5 pm in the Founder’s Room of the Hilton Madison Monona Terrace Hotel, 9 East Wilson Street, Madison, WI 53703, USA.

This is immediately after the conclusion of the 6th Biennial Myofilament Conference, “Elastic domains in proteins of the sarcomere: Stressors, regulators or rulers?”

There will be no additional charge for attendees of the workshop.

Preliminary program details will be available soon, please check back for updates!

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BioCAT user Joshua Riback wins 2018 Rosalind Franklin Investigator Award

A University of Chicago graduate student in Biophysical Sciences has received the 2018 Rosalind Franklin Investigator Award from the Advanced Photon Source (APS) Users Organization at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

Joshua Riback, who is in his fifth year of graduate studies, was recognized for his work using small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) techniques at the APS to study biophysical interactions.

Riback’s research focuses on the link between the biophysical properties of macromolecules and the principles of biological phenomena, such as subcellular localization and compartmentalization, evolution and fitness. By focusing on how proteins respond when temperature increases, Riback is working toward understanding the breadth of mechanisms that occur in the temperature-dependence and specificity of protein assembly.

“I was quite amazed at the work being done at the synchrotron, especially how many different techniques by many different fields seem to be taking part at the same time.” — Joshua Riback, University of Chicago graduate student and APS user

Ultimately, the goal is to extrapolate these mechanisms to other biological signals or stresses, so as to develop our understanding of the physical basis and cellular benefits of assembly.

Riback first worked on a light source during his …

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Cardiac Communication

BioCAT’s director Professor Tomas Irving discusses the heart project he is working on.

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