Rad50 is an ABC-type ATPase that forms a complex with the nuclease Mre11 and plays an essential role in the signaling and repair of DNA damage. Now crystal structures and SAXS analyses determined here at the SIBYLS beamline, along with functional assays, reveal how Rad50 transmits information between the ATPase and Mre11-binding sites, and the…
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From the January edition of “[Crystallography Times](http://www.rigaku.com/newsletter.html)” from Rigaku: > Small Angle X-ray Scattering (eds. Glatter & Kratky) can be freely (and legally) [downloaded](http://physchem.kfunigraz.ac.at/sm/Service/Glatter_Kratky_SAXS_1982.zip) from the [Scattering Methods](http://physchem.kfunigraz.ac.at/sm/) program at the University of Graz. The book provides a basic introduction to SAXS, followed by detailed fundamental theoretical and experimental aspects, as well as methods for…
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One of our favorite molecules has been selected as the January [Molecule of the Month](http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/static.do?p=education_discussion/molecule_of_the_month/pdb133_1.html) by the RCSB Protein Data Bank.
The number one in the citation hits for SAXS-study in 2010 obtained SIBYLS collaborative work on Ku and DNA-PKcs ([Hammel et al. 2010](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19893054)). Here, Ku and DNA-PKcs solution structures alone and in complex with DNA, defined by X-ray scattering (SAXS), reveal major structural reorganizations that choreograph non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) initiation. These results show how…
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To free up space on the primary /data volume we’ve recently created compressed read-only archival filesystems (using the [squashfs](http://squashfs.sourceforge.net/) filesystem if you’re interested) for all MX and SAXS data collected at the SIBYLS beamline between 2007 and 2009. You will find the archives mounted as /2007\_data, /2008\_data, and /2009_data on most of the beamline computers.…
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SIBYLS staff together with Dina Schneidman from Andrej Sali’s lab have developed the FoXS web application. FoXS (Fast X-Ray Scattering) is a rapid method for computing a SAXS profile of a given structure and for matching of the computed and experimental profiles. In our recent publication in Nucleic Acid Research we describe the interface and…
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Near and dear to our heart, Mre11, has been chosen as the May 2010 [featured molecule](http://dx.doi.org/10.3942/psi_sgkb/fm_2010_5) by the Protein Structure Initiative. Additionally, the blurb on the PSI website features a beautiful rendering of the *Pyrococcus furiosus* and *Thermotoga maritima* Mre11 nucleases created by [David Goodsell](http://mgl.scripps.edu/people/goodsell/).
UC Berkeley researchers, James Berger and Nathan Thomsen, used the SIBYLS beamline to solve the structure of a hexameric helicase, the Rho transcription termination factor (from E. coli), bound to both ATP mimics and an RNA substrate. The results showed that Rho functions like a rotary engine: as the motor spins, it pulls RNA strands…
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