After the well-attended and successful BioSAXS training workshop held at the 2013 annual meeting, the ACA approved a new program that will bring together structural biologists and soft matter scientists interested in gaining expertise in SAS.
Small angle solution scattering continues to experience dramatic growth within both the structural biology and soft matter communities. While there tends to be relatively little interaction between these communities historically, the two share essentially the same basic theoretical foundation as well as a number of tools and techniques. This workshop will bring together leading SAS experts in both areas to prepare students for successful experiments. The morning portion of the dual-track/two-room workshop will be a joint session covering theory and practice common to both fields. After the joint session, the rooms will be divided and the two parallel sessions will cover specifics of the individual fields of soft matter and structural biology. In addition to synchrotron sources, this workshop is expected to have significant content devoted to laboratory x-ray sources, but also particularly neutron sources and techniques.
The workshop format will include lectures, and a selection of hands-on practical exercises. Students will be expected to bring laptops with appropriate pre-installed software as necessary. Web-based servers will also be used. Throughout the workshop, the emphasis will be on knowing how to judge data quality, what to do about problematic samples, and basic requirements for acceptable publication of first-time data. Students will also learn tips and tricks for home laboratory data collection and be introduced to the various national synchrotron BioSAXS beamlines and neutron sources. This workshop will also aim to educate students about the particular advantages of neutron scattering and the extra steps necessary to carry out a first SANS experiment. Selected advanced modelling techniques will also be covered.
Please visit our course website for further information about this exciting event and links to the ACA’s registration page: http://meetings.chess.cornell.edu/ACABioSAS/index.html