Room: Exhibit Hall

We are delighted to invite you to the first of three engaging and insightful poster sessions.  The poster session promises to be a vibrant and dynamic event, offering you the chance to engage directly with presenters, ask questions, and delve deeper into their work. This interactive format allows for meaningful discussions and fosters collaborations among participants.  The poster session will be complemented by light refreshments, creating a relaxed and informal atmosphere conducive to networking. It's an ideal setting to meet fellow attendees, expand your professional network, and forge new connections within your field of interest.  We also encourage you to visit our vendors located throughout the exhibit show area.  

The YSIG Mixer aims to provide a relaxed and inclusive environment for early career professionals to meet and mingle with fellow attendees from various backgrounds and industries. Whether you're a recent graduate, a young professional, or transitioning into a new field, this event will offer a valuable platform to foster connections and build meaningful relationships.

Sunday, July 9, 2023 [Day #2] 

This session aims to highlight exciting structures in the realm of chemical crystallography. Examples of 'cool' structures would include small molecules of interest for their chemical or crystallographic properties, structure-property relationships, extended structures, supramolecular materials, and co-crystals. The session will bring the science enabled by chemical crystallographic analysis to the foreground. Speakers will be selected from contributed abstracts. Submissions from students are encouraged.  

2.1.2 Structures from Artificial Intelligence
Session Chair(s): Melanie Vollmar & Jennifer Wierman
Sponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel CD

Over the last four years the field of structural biology, for proteins in particular, has experienced a profound change. At synchrotron facilities data is acquired at a breath-taking speed, leaving many a scientist struggling to keep pace with data handling and analysis. The data resolution achieved with cryo-EM has now safely moved into a range that makes atomic model building routine and cryo-imaging as a whole now enables the study of large, macromolecular machines in situ. Lastly, the unprecedented quality of protein models from structure prediction has opened new ways of conducting research in structural biology. Both, the prediction of structures and the interpretation of large amounts of high-resolution data, require sophisticated, computational models. Hence, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) are now close to becoming standard tools for structural biologists to conduct their data analysis and interpretation. In this session we will look at the most recent ML and AI tools and developments that could now be in any structural biologist’s data analysis repertoire.

2.1.3 New Developments in cryoEM and cryoET
Session Chair(s): Anchi Cheng & Anthony Fitzpatrick
Sponsoring SIG(s): CryoEM
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Essex A-C

Technological developments in cryo-EM and cryo-ET have been the driving force moving the field forward. This season will focus on the latest technological developments in cryo-EM, including both hardware and software.

2.1.4 Automation in Software, Hardware and Data Processing
Session Chair(s): Peter Beaucage & Ruipeng Li
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Angle Scattering
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Light Sources
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel AB

Recent advances such as fourth-generation synchrotron sources, high-flux neutron sources, and fast pixel-array detectors have shifted the primary time-intensive step of SAS and XPCS measurement from data collection to sample delivery and data processing, reduction, and analysis. The experiment lifecycle from measurement to actionable insight has dramatically shortened from weeks of manual data analysis to live, on-the-fly reduction and analysis that enables users to make decisions about next measurement steps ‘live’ and lays the groundwork for closed-loop autonomous scattering experiments. This session will highlight recent and upcoming advances in the area of high-throughput, automated, and autonomous data processing. While beamlines and facilities will be a major focus, examples of laboratory source automation and user-developed data pipelines are also encouraged.

2.1.5 DEI: Expanding Access & Opportunities in Structural Science
Session Chair(s): Eta Isiorho & Christina Bourne
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Light Sources, Canadian Division, Industrial, Young Scientist, General Interest
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Kent A-C

The term “DEI” encompasses many ideals and recognizes that diversity enriches the scientific process by providing wider viewpoints. Numerous studies support that increased diversity of a workforce enhances success at companies and in academic teams. However, access to the scientific enterprise is still subjected to gatekeeping and requires on-going strategies to increase equity. Further, reinforcing inclusive environments provides benefits by both facilitating and enhancing retention of diverse talent.

In the structural sciences many advances are contributing to the ideals of DEI, as will be highlighted in this session. These include expanded access to specialized tools, such as synchrotron beam lines and cryoelectron microscopes, enhanced communication programs including animations and interactive applications, and outreach programs providing opportunities for new engagement. Because issues around DEI require a variety of approaches, a Q&A panel hosted by diverse and knowledgeable individuals will be held at the end of the session.

[Cancelled] 2.1.6: Roles of Structural Science in Science Communication

PL1 Etter Award: Kristin M. Hutchins (Texas Tech University)
Session Chair(s): Cora Lind-Kovacs
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 11:30 AM
End: 12:30 PM
Room: Essex A-C

The Professor Margaret C. Etter (1943-1992) Early Career Award was established to recognize outstanding achievement and exceptional potential in crystallographic research demonstrated by a scientist at an early stage of their independent career. The award is established to honor the memory of Professor Margaret C. Etter (1943-1992), who was a major contributor to the field of organic solid-state chemistry.  

2.2.1 Cool Structures II
Session Chair(s): Nate Barker, Jeff Bacon, Alex Erickson & Kamran Ghiassi
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Young Scientist, Canadian
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview AB

This session aims to highlight exciting structures in the realm of chemical crystallography. Examples of 'cool' structures would include small molecules of interest for their chemical or crystallographic properties, structure-property relationships, extended structures, supramolecular materials, and co-crystals. The session will bring the science enabled by chemical crystallographic analysis to the foreground. Speakers will be selected from contributed abstracts. Submissions from students are encouraged.

2.2.2 Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Other Data Science Techniques Applied to Structure Determination, Materials Characterization, Experiment Control and Data Analysis
Session Chair(s): Taylor Sparks & William Ratcliff
Sponsoring SIG(s): Neutron/Materials/Powder
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Laurel CD

In this session, we will have an exciting range of talks on applications of data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence towards structure determination. Topics covered will include advances in automation of experiments, adaptive design, structural modeling, generative models, and structural prediction.

[Cancelled] 2.2.3: Structural Biology in Space

2.2.3 General Interest II
Session Chair(s): Victoria Drago & Tim Stachowski 
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview CD

General Interest sessions are the forum for topics of broad interest to the structural science or for presentations that do not fit the specific theme of other sessions. All presentations are selected from submitted abstracts.

Session Chair(s): Alexis Rohou & Michael Cianfrocco
Sponsoring SIG(s): CryoEM
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Essex A-C

Machine learning has been increasingly applied in all aspects of cryo-EM, particularly in cryo-EM image processing. This session will focus on algorithm development and the application of machine learning in cryo-EM. We will highlight how machine learning affects the cryo-EM structure determination process, including data collection, micrograph and tomogram interpretation, 3D structure analysis, model building, and annotation.

2.2.5 Serial Crystallography
Session Chair(s): Iris Young, Petra Fromme
Sponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules, Light Sources, Small Molecule
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Kent A-C

Alongside rotation crystallography, serial crystallography has emerged as a powerful method for structure determination, with advantages for certain samples or experimental designs. At XFELs, so-called "diffraction-before-destruction" enables probing extremely radiation sensitive materials, from metalloenzymes to MOFs. Serial crystallography also opens up time-resolved experiments across time scales ranging from seconds to femtoseconds. Such experiments place new demands on sample delivery, instrumentation, and data processing methods as well. Finally, the introduction of microED as a robust structure determination technique raises the possibility of serial electron diffraction as an analogous technique to serial X-ray diffraction. This session highlights some of these advances, their unique promises and challenges, and their context at the forefront of crystallographic structure solution.

Session 2.2.5 is designated as the official Structural Dynamics session.

Session Chair(s): Will Thomas & Max Watkins
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Angle Scattering
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Laurel AB

Proper regulation is fundamental to biological systems, and this regulation often proceeds through allosteric control and binding of effectors at sites other than an active site. While not quite the “spooky action at a distance” that Einstein warned of, the communication of allosteric binding is nonetheless quite the curiosity, often involving long intra-protein distances and surprising or intricate changes in protein conformational ensemble. Though still challenging to study, uncovering the mysteries of allostery are of increasing interest for exploring novel avenues of pharmaceutical development as well as for understanding protein dynamics at a fundamental level. Fortunately, recent advances in structural biology techniques, especially solution scattering and cryo-electron microscopy, have increasingly enabled global-level studies of allosterically-driven conformational and oligomeric state changes. This session focuses on the use of structural biology techniques, with a particular emphasis on solution small-angle scattering, to gain insight into mechanisms of allosteric regulation, making them a little less “spooky” but no less wondrous.

SPONSORED EVENT: Rigaku Mixer Sunday, July 3, 2023 Start: 7:00 PM ET End: 9:00 PM ET James Joyce Bar & Restaurant (616 President Street, Baltimore, MD 21202)

2.3.1 Career Odysseys
Session Chair(s): Samantha Powell & Daniel Kneller
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Industrial, Service, Young Scientist, General Interest
Date: Sunday, July 9, 2023
Start: 7:30 PM
End: 9:30 PM
Room: Essex A-C

This session will target students, postdocs and early career scientists seeking to learn more about a variety of career paths. We will feature speakers from academia, industry, and government serving in a variety of roles. This will be an interactive session, with audience participation encouraged.  

Monday, July 10, 2023 [Day #3] 

3.1.1 Total Scattering: Applications and Advances in Complex Materials
Session Chair(s): Allyson Fry-Petit & Daniel Olds
Sponsoring SIG(s): Neutron/Materials/Powder
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Waterview CD

This session will feature a mixture of talks on developments in both neutron and x-ray total scattering techniques (e.g. AI-informed modeling and experimental control, multimodal analysis, dynamical PDF, 3D-ΔPDF, in-situ experimental capabilities, thin-film PDF, etc) and applications of total scattering to topical materials. As total scattering methods continue to grow in impact in diverse fields, this session will be useful for newcomers and experienced practitioners alike.

3.1.2 Quantum Crystallography I
Session Chair(s): Yu-Sheng Chen, Florian Kleemiss & Krzysztof Wozniak
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices, Service
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Kent A-C

This Session is dedicated to advances and results obtained in the field of Quantum Crystallography (QCr). QCr involves theoretical and practical aspects of using quantum mechanics during the investigation of crystalline materials. Both directions - the improvement of crystallographic analysis based on quantum mechanical models and the improvement of quantum mechanical methods based on crystallographic data - are covered within this field.

QCr models go beyond the spherical atom approach, ranging from Multipole Models over Hirshfeld Atom Refinement (HAR) to the calculations of experimentally enhanced wavefunctions. They yield better agreement with experimental data and allow for deepened understanding of the properties of materials. Applications for the investigation of intermolecular interactions, bonding indicators, atomic displacement, electronic states, relativistic effects, electron correlation effects, and redistribution of electron density are invited as well as work under non-ambient conditions using these methods. Systems under investigation range from inorganic network structures all the way to large structures such as proteins. This symposium invites crystallographers interested in these new approaches, method developers as well as those who are interested in applications across all experimental techniques (also including X-ray and electron diffraction) and theoretical approaches to obtain high-quality structural, electronic or thermal information.

Session Chair(s): David Rose & Stephen Burley
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel CD

Some 30 years ago, the bold concept of high-throughput determination of macromolecular structures was both visionary and controversial. In retrospect, it set the stage for many of the technical advances that are now standard operating procedures in structural biology, including both biophysical and computational prediction approaches. The goal of this session is to showcase some of the unique contributions of structural genomics in advancing our knowledge of macromolecular structure, accelerating progress in chemical biology and drug discovery, understanding human health and disease, and training structural biology researchers. Talks will include perspectives of past and current Structural Genomics efforts, early-career investigators who got their start through SG, and discussions about how SG will evolve in the coming years.

3.1.4 Small Molecule MicroED - Expanding Possibilities and Implementation
Session Chair(s): Jessica Bruhn & Dan Decato
Sponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Service, Small Molecule, Cryo EM
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Waterview AB

The emerging field of microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED), a 3D ED technique, has enabled solving high-resolution crystal structures without the need to grow large crystals and hence has attracted significant interest across various fields. Though MicroED is a relatively new technique, since its initial demonstration it has enabled structure elucidation for a variety of targets that were intractable by other techniques, and it is quickly gaining momentum in the scientific community, with more than 250 unique MicroED structures deposited in the CCDC along with numerous associated publications. This session will focus on examples of how MicroED has been used for structure determination of a variety of samples, highlighting the strengths, future prospects and thereby providing a platform to exchange ideas about future directions. Talks highlighting industrial applications and the process of establishing core facilities are highly encouraged.

3.1.5 New sample preparation technology for cryo-EM and cryo-ET
Session Chair(s): Jianhua Zhao & David Taylor
Sponsoring SIG(s): CryoEM
CoSponsoring SIG(s): BioMac
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Essex A-C

Developments in cryo-EM and cryo-ET imaging technology have revolutionized our ability to see the atomic structure of proteins and biological macromolecules in the cellular environment. However, the success of many research projects remains limited by issues of sample yield, stability, and orientation bias. In this session, we explore and discuss new developments in sample preparation technologies that address current challenges and open doors to exciting areas of biology.

3.1.6 Validating Models from the Data, Other Data, and Theory
Session Chair(s): Joseph Ferrara & John Rose
Sponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel AB

The stakeholders in data management include the scientists and the manufacturers of the instruments producing the data, the caretakers and curators of the data, and the general user community which include members of the preceding groups.

In a perfect world, the raw data and its metadata should be stored in a format that will be readable indefinitely. Should the metadata include the raw data format and version information of the software used to produce the results? Should the processing software (HKL, XDS, DIALS, SHELX* etc.), including any input scripts, be stored in a database for posterity? Should software for downstream analysis, (PHENIX, CCP4, CCP-EM, Olex2, etc.) be stored in the same database, for example? Some disciplines have excellent data management while others do not. For those that do not, what can we do better?

Lastly, how does AI fit into the larger picture data management window?

In this session we will explore the current and future best practices in data management from the perspective of the three stakeholder groups described in the first paragraph. John Helliwell, Chair of the IUCr Committee on Data will give the keynote presentation to open the session.

David (Dave) Rognlie was a dedicated and much loved member of the crystallographic community, interacting over many years with a large number of scientists through his activities as owner of Blake Industries. The award is intended to embody Dave’s values and personality: His generosity of spirit, optimism, selflessness and unstinting desire to help others to succeed in their endeavors. The award will be for any meritorious discovery or advance in structural science by someone at any stage of their career.   

*Dr. Chergui will be not be joining ACA2023 in person but instead forwarding a prerecorded video and connecting for questions via telephone.  

3.2.1 Quantum Crystallography II
Session Chair(s): Krzysztof Wozniak, Florian Kleemiss & Yu-Sheng Chen
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices, Service
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Kent A-C

This Session is dedicated to advances and results obtained in the field of Quantum Crystallography (QCr). QCr involves theoretical and practical aspects of using quantum mechanics during the investigation of crystalline materials. Both directions - the improvement of crystallographic analysis based on quantum mechanical models and the improvement of quantum mechanical methods based on crystallographic data - are covered within this field.

QCr models go beyond the spherical atom approach, ranging from Multipole Models over Hirshfeld Atom Refinement (HAR) to the calculation of experimentally enhanced wavefunctions. They yield better agreement with experimental data and allow deepened understanding of the material under investigation. Applications for the investigation of intermolecular interactions, bonding indicators, atomic displacement, electronic states, relativistic effects, electron correlation effects, and redistribution of electron density are invited as well as work under non-ambient conditions using these methods. Systems under investigation range from inorganic network structures all the way to large structures like proteins. This symposium invites crystallographers interested in these new approaches, method developers as well as these crystallographers who are interested in applications across all experimental techniques (also including X-ray and electron diffraction) and theoretical approaches to obtain high-quality structural, electronic or thermal information. 

Session Chair(s): Tyger Salters & Alicia Manjon Sanz
Sponsoring SIG(s): Neutron/Materials/Powder
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Light Sources
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Laurel AB

In pursuit of a sustainable future, structural studies play an important role in the development of functional materials for energy conversion and storage. Crystallography and scattering techniques enable the discovery and elucidation of useful structure-property relationships in crystalline and disordered materials. Such relationships are critical to the design and optimization of batteries, fuel cells, thermoelectric and photovoltaic cells, catalysts, piezoelectric devices, and gas separation technologies, among others. Continuing development of in-situ and in-operando techniques also provide critical understanding of these materials under the conditions of their intended use.

This session will cover emerging interdisciplinary work in the study of materials for energy and sustainability applications, with a focus on how structural studies, both steady-state and time-resolved, lend mechanistic insight into functional material design and optimization.

3.2.3 Small Molecule MicroED 2- Expanding Possibilities and Implementation
Session Chair(s): Ana Pakzad & Daniel Decato
Sponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview AB

The emerging field of microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED), a 3D ED technique, has enabled solving high-resolution crystal structures without the need to grow large crystals and hence has attracted significant interest across various fields. Though MicroED is a relatively new technique, since its initial demonstration it has enabled structure elucidation for a variety of targets that were intractable by other techniques, and it is quickly gaining momentum in the scientific community, with more than 250 unique MicroED structures deposited in the CCDC along with numerous associated publications. This session will focus on examples of how MicroED has been used for structure determination of a variety of samples, highlighting the strengths, future prospects and thereby providing a platform to exchange ideas about future directions. Talks highlighting industrial applications and the process of establishing core facilities are highly encouraged.

Session Chair(s): Hugh O'Neill, Susana Teixeira
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Angle Scattering
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Neutrons
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview CD

Recent and upcoming improvements at synchrotron and neutron sources have fostered interest in the development of new sample environment modalities for biomolecular small-angle scattering (BioSAS) experiments. These are particularly important because of the challenges associated with limited sample availability, polydispersity, enhanced sensitivity of biomolecule solutions to radiation and their environment, which are key aspects in determining the feasibility of BioSAS studies. This session targets both researchers who have never used small angle scattering techniques, interested in learning more about what an experiment entails, and more advanced facility users with an interest in contributing towards developments in sample environment instrumentation. The complementarity of BioSANS and BioSAXS will be discussed in this context, such as automation and machine-learning for industrial formulation discovery, low temperature capabilities for studies of the effects of freezing/thawing, high-pressure induced folding and stability studies, and in-line size-exclusion chromatography for deconvolution of polydisperse samples. We invite a discussion on these and other sample environment developments, as well as new challenges for biomolecular and bio-inspired materials.

Session Chair(s): Charles Stewart & Jonathan Clinger
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Essex A-C

The Hot Structures session will feature talks primarily selected from submitted abstracts describing the newest results from structural studies of biologically important macromolecules. Submissions are welcome that describe high-impact structures which provide new insights into biological phenomena, structure-function relationships and methods development. Studies may include the use of X-ray crystallography, XFEL, CryoEM, Small Angle X-ray Scattering or hybrid methods, including those that incorporate predictive/computational modeling.

RNA, DNA, and nucleic acid-protein complexes remain challenging targets for structural biology. Nucleic acids are often structurally flexible even when complexed to their protein partners and it can be difficult to purify large enough quantities of stable nucleic acids or nucleic-protein complexes for conventional structural approaches such as NMR or X-ray crystallography. This session focuses on presenting approaches and techniques for using cryo-EM to determine structures of dynamic nucleic acids and nucleic-protein complexes.

Session Chair(s): Cora Lind-Kovacs
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 7:30 PM
End: 9:30 PM
Room: Essex A-C

This award is named in honor of Elizabeth A. Wood, President of the ACA in 1957, and author of science books for lay readers.  This award honors those who have written books or articles that bring science to the attention of a wider audience.  Read more about the Wood Award and Juan Manuel's accomplishments...

3.3.1 Would You Publish This?
Session Chair(s): Matthew Brown & Rebecca McAuliffe
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules, Canadian Division, General Interest, Powder, Small Molecule, Young Scientist
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Service
Date: Monday, July 10, 2023
Start: 7:30 PM
End: 9:30 PM
Room: Kent A-C

Is your structure too poor to publish? What compromises would you have to make to publish your "low quality" structure? Do you have some less then ideal powder data that you still think you can make something useful with? If you have ever asked yourself these questions, then share your problems, insights, structures, and advice with the service crystallography community. This is a great opportunity for young crystallographers to share their work, where they can interact with a friendly audience, who with years of experience will provide constructive advice. Problems might include charge imbalance or other chemical issues, poor resolution or data completeness, complicated disorder, highly restrained models, unexplained residual electron density, suspicious of an incommensurate structure, etc. Talks in this session will be restricted to approximately 5 minutes in order to encourage audience participation and discussion. All talks will be selected from submitted abstracts. Those who submit abstracts to this session may still submit a second abstract to other sessions at no additional fee. For the first time this year this session is open to non-small molecule talks; Powder, protein and other types of crystallography are welcome!

4.1.1 The Economics of Structural Science, in Memory of Carlos Murillo
Session Chair(s): Larry Falvello, Brian Mahon & Dubravka Sisak Jung
Sponsoring SIG(s): Service
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Kent A-C

Scientists cannot escape the restraint imposed by the cost of their research. This session examines the past, current, and future states of funding and profit in the world of structural sciences, which covers structural biology and materials science. Researchers currently need to navigate an ecosystem of resources which span academia, industry, government, and non-profit agencies. Topics include: How does funding drive the need and availability of structural scientific results? Why support structural science? Funding a service lab and justifying the cost. How does a contract research lab make services economically feasible? Also, how do young investigators leverage the movement of government agencies funding centralized national centers or regional cores?

4.1.2 SAS in Vaccines and Drug Delivery Systems
Session Chair(s): Alice Thwin, Suzette Pabit
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Angle Scattering
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Waterview AB

Small-Angle X-ray scattering and Neuron Scattering are well-established experimental techniques that allow for structural characterization of biomaterials in solution under physiologically relevant conditions. These techniques allow for the acquisition of relevant data in real world conditions and has the potential to accelerate the development of biopharmaceutical products. SAXS and SANS can give nanometer and sub-nanometer structure information to help optimize pharmaceutical efficacy on a timescale not seen before. This session will highlight both success stories where SAS techniques were used for the development of vaccines, antibodies and drug delivery systems and at the same time address current considerations and challenges in using SAS for drug product development.

Session Chair(s): Elizabeth Sprague, Alice Thwin & Sandra Gabelli
Sponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules, Cryo EM
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Essex A-C

In this session we will feature applications of structural biology methods to drug discovery. Possible topics may include structure/function studies to inform drug discovery, hit validation, lead optimization challenges and fragments with a particular interest in examples involving a variety of techniques (e.g. xray, NMR, EM, in silico, biophysics, etc). Technology or methods development in these areas is also of interest

4.1.4 One Weird Trick
Session Chair(s): Charles Bou-Nader & Jonathan Hermann
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Service, Canadian
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel CD

Structural scientists approach experimentation through a uniquely empirical lens, one often dominated by trial and error. As such, the success or failure of a structural technique can sometimes rely on small experimental details which may initially appear unintuitive or unimportant. Rather than relegate these important details to a strategic sentence or two within a manuscript’s methods section, this session aims to highlight these unexpected methodological advances in structural science workflows. As structural techniques evolve faster than ever to adapt to new technologies and samples, this session will feature practical developments that may or may not warrant a formalized manuscript, but nevertheless were essential to the success of a structural investigation.

Session Chair(s): Peter Corfield & Joe Reibenspies
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Laurel AB

This session will explore how crystal structures can be used to understand intermolecular forces and interactions. Talks focusing either on tools (such as CrystalExplorer) or specific case studies are welcome

4.1.6 Magnetism, Symmetry, and Electronic Correlations in Topological Materials and Other Quantum Systems.
Session Chair(s): Keith Taddei & Jared Allred
Sponsoring SIG(s): Neutron/Materials/Powder
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Materials, Neutrons, Powder
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 8:30 AM
End: 11:30 AM
Room: Waterview CD

This session will focus on the central importance of symmetries in determining the properties of topological and quantum materials. Talks will focus on time reversal symmetry breaking, symmetry protection and the corresponding exotic correlated electron and topological states they can enforce such as magnetic insulators, Weyl/Dirac semimetals, topological superconductivity, quantum spin liquids, and quantum magnetism.

PL3 Patterson Award: Tamir Gonen (UCLA)
Session Chair(s): Cora Lind-Kovacs
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 11:30 AM
End: 12:30 PM
Room: Essex A-C

The Patterson Award is given to recognize and encourage outstanding research in the structure of matter by diffraction methods, including significant contributions to the methodology of structure determination and/or innovative application of diffraction methods and/or elucidation of biological, chemical, geological or physical phenomena using new structural information.   

4.2.1 Crystal Structures in Drug Product Design
Session Chair(s): Rajni Bhardwaj & Amy Sarjeant
Sponsoring SIG(s): Industrial
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Small Molecule
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Essex A-C

Crystal engineering is one of the key approaches which is utilized in pharmaceutical industries to obtain optimum drug product. The arrangement of molecules of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in crystal structure determines its various properties including physical, chemical, thermodynamic, kinetic, spectroscopic, mechanical, and surface properties. A thorough understanding of the relationships between crystal structures and the properties of API is critical in selecting the solid state form which can be manufactured reliably and reproducibly. These properties can also have major impact on formulation processing and drug product properties. This session aims to examine the role of crystal structures in designing and selecting solid state form to obtain optimum drug product. Topics may include design & realization of solid forms & their properties, solid form selection and risk assessment, structure property relationships e.g. hydration/dehydration, physical & chemical stability, compressibility & tabletability, role of solid state form in selection of formulation platform.

Session Chair(s): Tiffany Kinnibrugh
Sponsoring SIG(s): Light Sources
CoSponsoring SIG(s): YSIG, Canadian
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview AB

Technological advancements in automation, new protocols and equipment for mail-in and remote access, and brighter sources are enabling new research areas and opportunities for diversity and inclusion. Coupling these advances with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting both the materials and MX science. This session will provide an overview of the impact that these advances are having on the field of structural sciences now and in the future.

4.2.3 Computational techniques for SAS
Session Chair(s): Thomas Weiss & Steve Meisburger
Sponsoring SIG(s): Small Angle Scattering
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Best Practices
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Waterview CD

Small-Angle Scattering (SAS) has emerged as a powerful technique for integrating high resolution structural information to visualize complex molecular behaviors in solution. The success of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for structure prediction has made SAS more important than ever: there is a growing need to provide solution context and validation for predicted structures in a robust and high-throughput fashion. This session highlights new experimental and computational approaches for SAS to meet the challenges and opportunities created by AI & ML, as well as scientific applications of SAS enabled by new computational methods.

4.2.4 Electron Tomography
Session Chair(s): Lindsey Backman & Devrim Acehan
Sponsoring SIG(s): Biological Macromolecules
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Kent A-C

Typically, when scientists think of structural biology, their minds turn to high-resolution macromolecular structures obtained through methods such as X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy. Although resulting in lower resolution data, electron tomography (ET) provides researchers with the ability to obtain structural and spatial information for macromolecules, within the context of cellular environments. This session will highlight specimen preparation, data collection, data processing, and analysis developments that are enabling researchers to push the current limits for ET. In addition, you will hear stories about new applications for how ET is combined with light microscopy, structural, and biochemical methods to gain insights into how various macromolecules function within cells.

Session Chair(s): Sarah Bowman & Brent Nannenga
Sponsoring SIG(s): CryoEM
CoSponsoring SIG(s): BioMac
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Laurel CD

Taking advantage of vanishingly small crystals and electron microscopy instrumentation in diffraction mode, microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED) is a rapidly growing method for structure determination of biological macromolecules. This session will focus on 1) new macromolecular structures determined using MicroED and 2) methodological advances in MicroED techniques.

4.2.6 General Interest III
Session Chair(s): Karen Glass & Tim Mueser
Sponsoring SIG(s): General Interest
CoSponsoring SIG(s): Canadian
Date: Tuesday, July 11, 2023
Start: 2:00 PM
End: 5:00 PM
Room: Laurel AB

General Interest sessions are the forum for topics of broad interest to the structural science or for presentations that do not fit the specific theme of other sessions. All presentations are selected from submitted abstracts.

To mark the conclusion of this exceptional event, we cordially invite you to attend the Closing Banquet, where we will celebrate the accomplishments of the conference and provide an opportunity for networking and socializing in a relaxed setting. The banquet will be a delightful evening filled with great food, entertainment, and camaraderie among fellow attendees.