18th Annual SER-CAT Symposium; 2021
The 18th Annual SER-CAT Symposium will be held March 18-19th 2021, and will be hosted by the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, of Memphis TN. The meeting will be a two day St. Jude/SER-CAT Structural Biology Symposium, placing emphasis upon:
March 18th, Workshops and Poster Session:
- Remote use of SER-CAT beamlines, including automated capabilities enabled by both the new K-B focusing mirror system and the Eiger 16M detector
- Use of Partner ALS beamlines during the APS Dark Period
March 19th, Scientific Meeting:
- Invited speakers whose major contributions to biology and human disease research are propelled by X-ray Crystallography
- Keynote Speaker: Ian Wilson, DPhil, Scripps Research
March 18-19th:
- View posters and pre-recorded talks submitted by registrants
The St. Jude – SER–CAT Structural Biology Symposium website is live; Full Agenda is available on website!
- Abstract submission deadline: EXTENDED to Wednesday, February 24, midnight CT
- Registration deadline: EXTENDED to Monday, March 15, midnight CT
SER-CAT Outstanding Science Award - 2021
Endogenous DNA 3' Blocks Are Vulnerabilities for BRCA1 and BRCA2 Deficiency and Are Reversed by the APE2 Nuclease.
The 2021 SER-CAT Outstanding Science Award will be presented to Dr. R. Scott Williams, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Durham, NC, USA, for his outstanding work entitled: Endogenous DNA 3' Blocks Are Vulnerabilities for BRCA1 and BRCA2 Deficiency and Are Reversed by the APE2 Nuclease.
Award will be presented by: SER-CAT Director Professor Bi-Cheng Wang.
- Authors: Alejandro Álvarez-Quilón, Jessica L Wojtaszek, Marie-Claude Mathieu, Tejas Patel, C Denise Appel, Nicole Hustedt, Silvia Emma Rossi, Bret D Wallace, Dheva Setiaputra, Salomé Adam, Yota Ohashi, Henrique Melo, Tiffany Cho, Christian Gervais, Ivan M Muñoz, Eric Grazzini, Jordan T F Young, John Rouse, Michael Zinda, R Scott Williams, Daniel Durocher.
- Mol Cell. 2020 Jun 18;78(6):1152-1165.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.05.021.
SER-CAT Young Investigator Award - 2021
Disruption of evolutionarily correlated tRNA elements impairs accurate decoding.
The 2021 SER-CAT Young Investigator Award will be presented to Ha An Nguyen, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA, for her outstanding work entitled: Disruption of evolutionarily correlated tRNA elements impairs accurate decoding.
Award will be presented by: SER-CAT Director Professor Bi-Cheng Wang.
- Authors: Ha An Nguyen, S Sunita, Christine M Dunham.
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Jul 14;117(28):16333-16338. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2004170117.
User Science Highlight
Inhibition of the Complement Alternative Pathway by Chemically Modified DNA Aptamers That Bind with Picomolar Affinity to Factor B.
The complement system is a conserved component of innate immunity that fulfills diverse roles in defense and homeostasis. Inappropriate activation of complement contributes to many inflammatory diseases, however, which has led to a renewed emphasis on development of therapeutic complement inhibitors. Activation of complement component C3 is required for amplification of complement and is achieved through two multisubunit proteases called C3 convertases...
- Authors: Xin Xu, Chi Zhang, ..., Brian V Geisbrecht
- J Immunol. 2021 Feb 15;206(4):861-873. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2001260.
User Science Highlight
Foundational Role in Development of COVID-19 Vaccines.
While the rapid availability of COVID-19 vaccines, so soon after the outbreak of the disease, stands as a truly amazing achievement, many of the foundational steps underpinning the development of these drugs were based upon research dating back several years. Parts of that work were performed by Dr. Peter Kwong and his colleagues, of the NIH Vaccine Research Center, using the SER-CAT beamlines located at the APS, and operated by the University of Georgia.
An APS User News review, outlining the progress of this research, was recently published online by the APS.
- Author of this review: Andre Salles.
- APS Plays Foundational Role in Development of COVID-19 Vaccines.
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Award Nomination Packages
Information packages, for nominating Outstanding Science or Young Investigator for SER-CAT Annual Awards.