CLS MX Data Collection School

Name: CLS MX Data Collection School
Start: 2022-11-18T14:00:00Z
End: 2022-12-03T00:00:00Z

Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility

November 18 to December 2, 2022

Welcome

The Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (CMCF) is excited to host the 11th Annual CLS Mx Data Collection School! We will be joined by special guest Nigel Moriarty (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), a developer for the PHENIX software suite. Participants will attend a series of lectures and be actively engaged in macromolecular crystallography (Mx) data collection at CMCF beamlines.

This year, each participant will be asked to deliver a 3-5 minute Flash Talk related to their research focus. Flash Talks will be scheduled at the start of one of the four Lunch-and-Learn sessions on November 22-25, and will be followed by discussions among participants - a great opportunity to network with other crystallographers at the school!

Completing the school enables participants to make effective use of the beamlines remotely, and better equips researchers to collect and analyze diffraction data.

Watch this site for updates and information about the school, and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you in November!

How to Attend

This year's virtual program will be delivered primarily over Zoom, with detailed times and meeting links available to our registered participants on the Schedule page. You can join from the browser, from the Zoom desktop and mobile application, or from a landline or mobile phone. Zoom meeting rooms will be open 15 minutes before the start of each session to give you time to test your connection.

Schedule At a Glance

MxSchool provides participants with hands-on experience with mentors for all phases of the experimental process, from data collection to processing to structure solution. This year, we are spreading the program over roughly two weeks, with the hope that material can be presented in smaller packages that are reasonable for participants to digest before moving on to the next section of the course. The scheduled program is arranged roughly in three sections:

1. Introductory Lectures and Virtual Tour (November 18) to orient participants to the CLS, CMCF, and the remainder of the course.

2. Data Collection Week (November 21-25): In addition to a set of lectures related to data collection on November 21, participants will be scheduled for one half-day, hands-on data collection slot where they will operate the beamline remotely and collect real diffraction data using standard crystals. An informal lunch-and-learn session will be hosted in the middle of each day of data collection to hear flash-talks and network with fellow participants.

3. Data Analysis Week (November 28-December 1): Alternating between a day featuring an introductory lecture, and a day with an extended tutorial, this week will allow participants to bring their questions to the experts, and build their confidence in analyzing crystallographic data.

We plan to wrap-up the program with a final meeting on December 2, where participants will have the chance to meet PIs from across Canada and members of the CMCF Beam Team!

Flash Talks

Each participant will be scheduled for a Flash Talk at one of our Lunch-and-Learn sessions, November 22-25 from 12:30-13:15 CST. Some points to keep in mind when preparing for your Flash Talk:

keep your talk between 3 and 5 minutes long,
feel free to use slides or other visuals - you can share your screen during your Flash Talk,
if you are not comfortable sharing your unpublished or proprietary research, you can talk generally about a research area that interests you.

Technical Requirements

To participate in the full program, including hands-on data collection, and data processing and structure solution tutorials, participants will require access to a computer that can support:

audio/video connections over Zoom,
remote connections to beamline computers using NoMachine,
recent version Phenix (which includes DIALS).

There is test data available for you to use during data processing or structure solution tutorials:

During the school, we will reserve time for office hours when CMCF staff will be available to assist you with testing your connections and installations.