The Structural Biology Center (SBC) is a national user facility for macromolecular crystallography at the Advanced Photon Source (APS).

SBC has closed operations to make way for a new resource called eBERlight -a virtual collaborative access team for the BER community. Capabilities from X-ray macromolecular crystallography to X-ray absorption spectroscopy will be available at the APS in Spring 2024.

SBC Highlights and News 

Scientists at SBC and APS received an ANL impact award on its 2020 research encompassing the SARS CoV-2 virus and continues to research for therapeutics and treatments to combat infectious disease.

The APS uses advanced instrumentation, state-of-the-art software and methods and high throughput technologies. SBC, now eBERlight is capable of addressing the most challenging projects in structural biology that include: large macromolecular assemblies (ribosomes, viruses, regulatory protein/DNAcomplexes), membrane-bound and membrane-associated proteins (ion channels, receptors, integrins). Structures of enzymes and complexes with ligands and inhibitors can be determined at atomic resolution. Thanks to recent advances, faster detectors, and automation, one does not need not be a macromolecular crystallographer to take advantage of these facilities; our experienced staff are available to guide even novice users through the entire process.

 

Publications

Publications Highlights

Julian C.-H. Chen, Miroslaw Gilski, Changsoo Chang, Dominika Borek, Gerd Rosenbaum, Alex Lavens, Zbyszek Otwinowski, Maciej Kubicki, Zbigniew Dauter, Mariusz Jaskolskid, Andrzej Joachimiak, "Solvent organization in the ultrahigh-resolution crystal structure of crambin at room temperature," IUCrJ 11 (5), 649-663 (2024). DOI: 10.1107/S2052252524007784

Youngchang Kim, Seung Hwan Lee, Priyanka Gade, Maren Nattermann, Natalia Maltseva, Michael Endres, Jing Chen, Philipp Wichmann, Yang Hu, Daniel G. Marchal, Yasuo Yoshikuni, Tobias J. Erb, Ramon Gonzalez, Karolina Michalska, Andrzej Joachimiak, "Revealing reaction intermediates in one-carbon elongation by thiamine diphosphate/CoA-dependent enzyme family," Commun. Chem. 7, 160 (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s42004-024-01242-y

Chungyu Chang, HyLam Ton-That, Jerzy Osipiuk, Andrzej Joachimiak, Asis Das, Hung Ton-That, "Molecular basis for dual functions in pilus assembly modulated by the lid of a pilus-specific sortase," J. Biol. Chem. 300 (6), 107329 (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107329

Prakash Jadhav, Bo Huang, Jerzy Osipiuk, Xiaoming Zhang, Haozhou Tan, Christine Tesar, Michael Endres, Robert Jedrzejczak, Bin Tan, Xufang Deng, Andrzej Joachimiak, Jianfeng Cai, Jun Wang, "Structure-based design of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease inhibitors," Eur. J. Med. Chem. 264, 116011 (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2023.116011

Emma H. Kelley, Jerzy Osipiuk, Malgorzata Korbas, Michael Endres, Alayna Bland, Victoria Ehrman, Andrzej Joachimiak, Kenneth W. Olsen, Daniel P. Becker, "N[superscript alpha]-acetyl-L-ornithine deacetylase from Escherichia coli and a ninhydrin-based assay to enable inhibitor identification Updated," Front. Chem. 12, 1415644 (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2024.1415644

Youngchang Kim, Natalia Maltseva, Christine Tesar, Robert Jedrzejczak, Michael Endres, Heng Ma, Haley L. Dugan, Christopher T. Stamper, Changsoo Chang, Lei Li, Siriruk Changrob, Nai-Ying Zheng, Min Huang, Arvind Ramanathan, Patrick Wilson, Karolina Michalska, Andrzej Joachimiak, "Epitopes recognition of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid RNA binding domain by human monoclonal antibodies," iScience 27 (2), 108976 (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.108976

Stephanie M. Thibert, Deseree J. Reid, Jesse W. Wilson, Rohith Varikoti, Natalia Maltseva, Katherine J. Schultz, Agustin Kruel, Gyorgy Babnigg, Andrzej Joachimiak, Neeraj Kumar, Mowei Zhou, "Native Mass Spectrometry Dissects the Structural Dynamics of an Allosteric Heterodimer of SARS-CoV-2 Nonstructural Proteins," J. Am. Soc. Mass. Spectrom. 35 (5), 912-921 (2024). DOI: 10.1021/jasms.3c00453

Timothy A. Klein, Prakhar Y. Shah, Polyniki Gkragkopoulou, Dirk W. Grebenc, Youngchang Kim, John C. Whitney, "Structure of a tripartite protein complex that targets toxins to the type VII secretion system," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 121 (3), e2312455121 (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2312455121

Kemin Tan, Yuk-Ching Tse-Dinh, "Variation of Structure and Cellular Functions of Type IA Topoisomerases across the Tree of Life," Cell 13 (6), 553 (2024). DOI: 10.3390/cells13060553

Chun Gui, Edward Kalkreuter, Yu-Chen Liu, Gengnan Li, Andrew D. Steele, Dong Yang, Changsoo Chang, Ben Shen, "Cofactorless oxygenases guide anthraquinone-fused enediyne biosynthesis," Nat. Chem. Biol. 20, 243-250 (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41589-023-01476-2

 

Publications
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Current Beamline Statistics
Announcements

APS-U Capabilities 

New opportunities are now available at eBERlight

The APS-U will provide a highly brilliant beam ideally suited for serial crystallography methods.  Serial crystallography methods have many advantages: they are more biologically relevant at room temperatures and reduce radiation damage by order of magnitude per structure. It also encourages the use of small or x-ray sensitive samples with the ability to perform time-resolved measurements.  Advances in SSX experiments are paramount for the APS-U. This method is expected to flourish with the significant increase in x-ray flux density and a concomitant rise in multi-crystal datasets.  If you are interested, please contact eBERlight@anl.gov.

The Advanced Protein Characterization Facility (APCF) is open for users.  This state-of-the-art laboratory has a HTP structural biology pipeline composed of bioinformatics, robotic gene cloning, protein expression, purification, characterization, crystallization, and structure determination.  

To gain access, register with the user office and submit an ESAF for Sector 84.