Macromolecular crystallography (MX) and biological small-angle X-ray solution scattering (BioSAXS) are two of the most important methods used to investigate the structure of macromolecules and efforts are underway at CHESS to establish two of the first beamlines worldwide optimized for high pressure MX and BioSAXS. Enthusiasm and interest in the field as well as the new X-ray techniques offered by CHESS were documented by the participation of more than 50 scientists in the workshop on “Biomolecules Under Pressure” which was part of the recent CHESS Users Meeting. Speakers presented how high-pressure bioscience relates to molecular biophysics, the evolution of life, food science and other fields. Moreover, talks and discussion covered the instrumentation required to perform high-pressure biological MX and SAXS experiments, especially as pertains to the determination of molecular structure. The workshop conclude with a tour of CHESS and a short overview of data acquisition at BioSAXS.
CHESS Users Meeting Workshop on "Biomolecules Under Pressure"
There is growing interest in the biological research community to characterize and understand the impact of high pressures, i.e. 100s of MPa, on the physical properties and function of biological macromolecules, e.g. proteins, viruses, lipids etc.
