Crystallography matters ... more!

Many initiatives have been and are being organized to involve schoolchildren at Mudaliarpet, Pondicherry (India) into crystallography on the occasion of IYCr2014.

1. At first, the students were given a brief introduction on various crystals, which made them think about how crystals are formed.

2. Following this, a team of students were selected for a project on Crystal Growth - investigating the size, shape and number of crystals formed, taking various substances such as table salt, sugar, epsom salt, borax, potassium nitrate and alum. 

3. A Radio Talk was given by the teacher and the students on the "International Year of Crystallography".

4. A lecture was given on the topic to the school students, following which a demonstration -cum- exhibition, along with a poster presentation by the teacher is to be arranged for view for the public around the school locale. 

5. A next attempt to telecast the above in the television is made.

6. Students of our school are participating in the IYCr2014 Crystal Growing Competition. 

The photograph exhibition "Entre Art et Sciences: le Corail en Images, de l'Animal au Cristal" will be hosted at the Scientific Centre of Monaco (CSM) from 7 April to 3 June 2014.

Following the great success obtained in Reggio Emilia, the exhibition “L’ENIGMA ESCHER- PARADOSSI GRAFICI TRA ARTE E GEOMETRIA”, a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Maurits Cornelis Escher, will be on display at "Il Filatoio di Caraglio" (Cuneo, Italy) from 29 March to 29 June 2014.

The exhibition presents the work of the Dutch graphic artist from his debut on the scene to his latest years, bringing together 130 works, including lithographs, etchings and drawings, on loan from museums, libraries and national institutes – among which the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Rome and the Fondazione Wolfsoniana of Genoa – as well as from some important, private collections.

A special section is dedicated to tilings, with a panel illustrating the 17 crystallographic planar groups and some original examples of Escher's plane-filling drawings.

The exhibition is included in the events for IYCr2014 celebrations in Italy. 

Read the press release on the Reggio Emilia exhibition mentioning the connection with IYCr2014 (in Italian)

The exhibition "Living with crystal" (original title in Slovenian: Živeti s kristali), organized on the occasion of the International Year of Crystallography, will be open from 13 February 2014 to 11 January 2015 at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Ljubljana. 

On display: Photographs of minerals, Crystal drawings, Mineral and crystal collections, Jewellery, Fluorescent minerals, Interactive presentation of minerals and rocks on Biedermeier tables, Interactive play "Umek the Mineralogist", Microscopic world of crystals.

Authors: Miha Jeršek, Mirjan Žorž, Breda Činč Juhant, Katarina Fuchs

This year's exhibition at Carolina Rediviva, Platonic Solids and Quasicrystals, is all about crystallography and shows how this science has been perceived over time. By collaborating with the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University, we can exhibit books side by side with real crystals, models of crystals and instruments that have been used to measure the angles of these strange formations that seem to have been cut and polished by human hand whereas in fact they have been shaped by uniform atomic structures.

Welcome on a beautiful journey through this collection of historical scientific books and artifacts.

The location will be at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF).

The course will provide training on creating a roadmap towards determining the 3D structure of a macromolecular target including troubleshooting and rational decision-making. Emphasis will be given on Bio SAXS as a method of choice to characterize the structure of a single protein and protein complexes in solution coupled with X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and electron microscopy (EM). An overview of mainstream methods will also be presented and attention will be drawn to techniques developed the last years like X-ray imaging. In addition, the participants will have a chance to get informed about the options they have for career development. Overall, the course will enable the attendees to adopt a broader way of thinking and get acquainted with state-of-the-art approaches currently employed in structural biology. This will increase researchers’ awareness on the facilities and services provided and capitalize on the investment that has already been made by Europe with the aim to promote innovative research.

Target Group & Selection process: The course targets mainly PhD students and post-doctoral scientists who are currently working in the structural biology field and have already some experience in working with macromolecules. Experienced researchers will also be considered but priority will be given to younger scientists. A total of 25 participants will be accepted in the course. The applicants will be expected to send a CV (max. 2 pages), a motivation letter (max. 1 page) explaining why they wish to participate and what they expect from the course and a reference letter. The Biostruct-X and local organizers will be responsible for the selection process to ensure that equivalent criteria will be applied.

Benefits:

Participants that have been accepted to the course are offered to send protein samples for characterization and crystallization to the Sample Preparation and Characterization (SPC) facility at the EMBL in Hamburg. The samples must be relatively pure (>90 % according to SDS-PAGE). The SPC will offer a preliminary sparse matrix screen that can be customized to the particular sample, as well as complementary characterization by thermal shift assay, dynamic light scattering and mass spectrometry. The preliminary results of this characterization will be discussed during the course. For more information, please visit the SPC website: https://htx.embl-hamburg.de/htxlab/

A limited number of fellowships will be awarded to participants coming from INSTRUCT member countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom) awarded by INSTRUCT (http://www.structuralbiology.com).

Host: The event will be hosted by NHRF, coordinator of Instruct-EL, the national distributed research infrastructure that functions as a hub for structural biology in South East European area and Cyprus.

The course is organized in conjunction with the International Conference on Research Infrastructures (ICRI-2014) that will also be held in Athens April 2^nd  – April 4^th, http://www.icri2014.eu

Registration fees: €50 for academic participants and €1000 for participants coming from industry.

Confirmed speakers in alphabetical order include:

T. Bergfors, M. Graewert, P. Konarev, R. Meijers, G. Nounesis, E. Pereiro, M. Petoukhov, S. Pispas, E. Saridakis, S. Savvides, Th. Schneider, Ef. Stratikos, D. Stuart, G. Spyroulias, D. Svergun, C.E. Vorgias, M. Weiss, M. Wilmanns

Organizing committee:

Local organizers :

National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF, host)

E.D. Chrysina, V. Papadimitriou, A. Xenakis, M. Zervou, P. Zoumpoulakis

Hellenic Crystallographic Association

I.M. Mavridis, S.E. Zographos

ICRI-2014 organizers:

• European Commission, Directorate General for Research & Innovation

Octavi Quintana Trias, Director of ERA policy

• “Athena”- Research and Innovation Center (on behalf of the Greek presidency/GSRT)

Yannis Ioannidis, President and General Director

A journey into the world of crystals

Librinfesta is an exhibition held in Alessandria (Italy) from April 8th to 12th, 2014 to encourage schoolchildren (especially the youngest) to book reading. Among the various events, to celebrate the International Year of Crystallography, Dr. M. Milanesio, Dr. G. Croce and Dr. E. Conterosito of the Università del Piemonte Orientale organize some activities for children about the fascinating relations among crystals, symmetry, order, light, molecules and real life objects.

Viaggio nel mondo dei cristalli

Con il 2014 l’Associazione Il Contastorie di Alessandria organizza l’XI edizione  della manifestazione Librinfesta (dall’8 al 12 aprile 2014); Librinfesta è un evento per giovani lettori e un’occasione per creare tavoli di lavoro e aggiornamento per il mondo della scuola e per tutti coloro che riconoscono all’educazione e alla lettura un ruolo cardine nella formazione dell’infanzia e dell’adolescenza. In programma eventi, letture, incontri e laboratori tra cui quello organizzato dal Dr. M. Milanesio, Dr. G. Croce e Dr. E. Conterosito dell’Università del Piemonte Orientale in occasione anche dell’Anno Internazionale della Cristallografia. Tale laboratorio dal titolo ‘Viaggio nel Mondo dei Cristalli’ è rivolto a studenti delle ultime classi della scuola primaria e a studenti della scuola secondaria ed ha lo scopo di far conoscere ai più giovani l’affascinante mondo dei cristalli e della cristallografia attraverso giochi sulla simmetria e sugli effetti di diffrazione della luce e di far meglio comprendere le proprietà delle molecole e le loro strutture anche in oggetti di uso quotidiano.

See the photos of the event 

The Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Lodz (Poland) will be the site of a panel discussion focused on current problems of crystallography and its historical influence on the development of other, important sectors of chemical sciences such as organic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry, materials chemistry, etc.. The discussion will be chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, Professor Grzegorz Mloston (an organic chemist).  Alongside with a group of associate of the host Faculty, representatives of other academic and research institutions from Lodz, Poznan and Warsaw are invited to participate actively in the discussion.   

The panel discussion is scheduled for Thursday, April 10th and it is considered as a vital part of XIVth Festival of Science, Technology and the Arts held traditionally every year in April, in Lodz.

A LNEG (Portuguese Geological Survey) and Portuguese IGCP initiative to promote the International Year of Crystallography 2014 – 10, 11, 12 April, Beja, Portugal (10h30 - 11h30 am).

The objective is to promote IYCr2014 using the rock blocks of the Beja Geological Trail and their minerals. The trail collection includes Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, including sulphide stockwork veins mineralizations.

The initiative is dedicated to general public, teachers and students. Participation is free.

Download the poster of the event 

In the framework of the celebrations for the UN International Year of Crystallography at the University of Melbourne, Professor Peter Colman will present a public lecture at the Bio21 Institute in Melbourne, Parkville, Australia on the topic 'Crystals and X-Rays - how we see molecules and discover new medicines'.

Abstract: In the century since X-ray scattering by crystals was first observed, crystallographers have described the atomic structure of diverse materials such as diamond, DNA and proteins. Structure determines function and these structures explain diamond’s hardness, DNA’s role in hereditary, and how influenza viruses escape from one cell to infect another.  Contemporary drug discovery depends on the crystallographer’s photographs of protein molecules (magnified some 100 million times) to fashion drugs capable of selectively hitting the right target. Over the past twenty-five years crystallography has guided the discovery of new medicines for influenza, HIV and a number of specific cancers, and there is promise of much more to come.

Peter Colman studied physics at the University of Adelaide before embarking on a career in structural biology. Whilst at CSIRO in Melbourne his laboratory determined the crystal structure of the influenza virus protein neuraminidase, leading him to the discovery of a new class drugs for influenza. Relenza™ is among the earliest examples of drugs arising from X-ray crystallography. The drug class, known as neuraminidase inhibitors, are front-line agents in international preparedness for influenza pandemics. Crystallography is now a routine tool in drug discovery.  Colman, now at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, currently investigates new therapies for cancer that activate the cell suicide machinery.