As you may know from the DDIR's Web board and a recent NIH-Staff list announcement, it's time again to submit nominations for the Wednesday Afternoon Lectures, NIH's premier lecture series.

We are very pleased this year to have a system for submitting nominations online, thanks to a nifty system created by the web and database developers at CIT.  Submit your nomination at: http://fmp.cit.nih.gov/wals/wals1.html

We are perfecting the nomination form and paperless automation as we go, so we especially appreciate your participating this year, both for your nomination, and for your helping us perfect the automated nomination procedure. We've already made a few upgrades based on the 14 nominations that have come in so far.

Our guidelines for submitting WALS nominations are as always: We are looking for outstanding, articulate, active investigators who have an interesting research "story" to tell that will fascinate a broad spectrum of  scientists at NIH. We especially like to see new faces and role models who add to the diversity of the speakers in the series -- which has now celebrated a decade of life.  The online form indicates what information is needed. Nominating paragraphs should be very succinct and persuasive. Do not include more than one reference. You may include a website. For full consideration--including for the most prestigious Director's Lectures (Pittman, Dyer, Mider, Cultural, Astute Clinician, and Director's -- description of these lectures is on the website)
The Deadline for nominations is December 10 for full consideration.
http://fmp.cit.nih.gov/wals/wals1.html

This year's Lectures Subcommittee of the Scientific Directors will be led by Robert Wenthold of NIDCD. Serving with him on the committee will be Robert Angerer, Eric Green, and a scientist to be named. (There is no rule against lobbying your Scientific Interest Group, Fellows' Committee representative, Scientific Director or one of these committee members on behalf of your nominee!) Nominators and their interest groups will be involved in hosting the special visitors selected to speak in the Wednesday Afternoon Lectures. We will be asking the IGs to review and rank nominations after the Director's Lecturers are selected. So go for it! Help us bring the most exciting science to NIH! Make your contribution to NIH's 10-year-old Wednesday tradition!
 

Item 1: November 2004 Publications by Members:

1:  Guan R, Roychowdhury A, Ember B, Kumar S, Boons GJ, Mariuzza RA.
Structural basis for peptidoglycan binding by peptidoglycan recognition proteins.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Nov 30; PMID: 15572450

2:  Swales K, Kakizaki S, Yamamoto Y, Inoue K, Kobayashi K, Negishi M.
Novel CAR-mediated mechanism for synergistic activation of two distinct elements within the human cytochrome P450 2B6 gene in HepG2 cells.
J Biol Chem. 2004 Nov 24; PMID: 15563456

3:  Derewenda U, Oleksy A, Stevenson AS, Korczynska J, Dauter Z, Somlyo AP, Otlewski J, Somlyo AV, Derewenda ZS.
The Crystal Structure of RhoA in Complex with the DH/PH Fragment of PDZRhoGEF, an Activator of the Ca(2+) Sensitization Pathway in Smooth Muscle.
Structure (Camb). 2004 Nov;12(11):1955-65. PMID: 15530360

4:  Forrer P, Chang C, Ott D, Wlodawer A, Pluckthun A.
Kinetic stability and crystal structure of the viral capsid protein SHP.
J Mol Biol. 2004 Nov 12;344(1):179-93. PMID: 15504410

5:  Saxena AK, Singh K, Long CA, Garboczi DN.
Preparation, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of a complex between the Plasmodium vivax sexual stage 25 kDa protein Pvs25 and a malaria transmission-blocking antibody Fab fragment.
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2004 Nov;60(Pt 11):2054-7. Epub 2004 Oct 20. PMID: 15502325

6:  Schubot FD, Waugh DS.
A pivotal role for reductive methylation in the de novo crystallization of a ternary complex composed of Yersinia pestis virulence factors YopN, SycN and YscB.
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2004 Nov;60(Pt 11):1981-6. Epub 2004 Oct 20. PMID: 15502305

7:  Zwart PH, Banumathi S, Dauter M, Dauter Z.
Radiation-damage-induced phasing with anomalous scattering: substructure solution and phasing.
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2004 Nov;60(Pt 11):1958-63. Epub 2004 Oct 20. PMID: 15502302

8:  Nallamsetty S, Kapust RB, Tozser J, Cherry S, Tropea JE, Copeland TD, Waugh DS.
Efficient site-specific processing of fusion proteins by tobacco vein mottling virus protease in vivo and in vitro.
Protein Expr Purif. 2004 Nov;38(1):108-15. PMID: 15477088

9:  Squires EJ, Sueyoshi T, Negishi M.
Cytoplasmic Localization of Pregnane X Receptor and Ligand-dependent Nuclear Translocation in Mouse Liver.
J Biol Chem. 2004 Nov 19;279(47):49307-14. PMID: 15347657

10:  Vidal AE, Kannouche P, Podust VN, Yang W, Lehmann AR, Woodgate R.
Proliferating cell nuclear antigen-dependent coordination of the biological functions of human DNA polymerase iota.
J Biol Chem. 2004 Nov 12;279(46):48360-8. PMID: 15342632

11: Gu Y, Guo J, Pal A, Pan S-S, Zimniak P, Singh SV, and Ji X.

Crystal Structure of Human Glutathione S-Transferase A3-3 and Mechanistic Implications for Its High Steroid Isomerase Activity
Biochemistry. Release Date: 17-Nov-2004. DOI: 10.1021/bi048757g

Item 2: Tips and Tricks in Crystallography

This section is always open for contributions. Click for Introduction and tips and tricks in Crystallization, Derivatization, Diffraction, Symmetry, Structure Solution, Structure Refinement, and Structure Analysis.

Item 3: Topic Discussion - Protein Expression and High-throughput Expression Systems

Click for previous discussions on: Parallel Protein Expression, Structural Genomics, NCS, Missing Atoms, Trends in Crystallography, and Absorption Correction.