New field of structural biology discussed at meeting

Abstract

The 1st and 2nd International Symposia on “Development of New Structural Biology Including Hydrogen and Hydration” were held from March 27 to 29,2000 at JAERI, and October 27 to 29, 2000 in Mito, Japan, respectively, and sponsored by the Organized Research Combination System (ORCS). The philosophy of the symposia is as follows: it has been already understood that hydrogen atoms and hydration water molecules play an important role in most physiological function, since half the constituents of biological macromolecules are hydrogen atoms and life cannot exist without water. The DRCS is to establish a new field of structural biology by including the information of protonation and hydration in protein and DNA using not only neutron diffraction experiments on a large protein/DNA single crystals, but also X-ray diffraction and NMR experiments, and computer simulations. To promote the project, JAERI and the National Institute of Agrobiological Resources will cooperate by exchanging information as well as scientists to carry out experiments and computer simulations.