June 20-24, 2005

BioCD-2005

An intensive weeklong course on Circular Dichroism (CD) was presented at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory, from June 20-24, 2005.

CD is the difference in absorption of left and right circularly polarized light. It is observed in the spectral regions of absorption of molecules that are chiral, i.e. lacking a center of symmetry. While most CD spectra are small - only a tiny fraction of the total absorption - biopolymers with helical structures, such as proteins, DNA, RNA and polysaccharides, exhibit informative CD spectra.

Participants in the BioCD-2005 Workshop

The objective of BioCD-2005 was to acquaint the participants with the theory of ultraviolet CD spectroscopy, techniques, and instrumentation for acquiring CD data with laboratory and synchrotron-source instruments, as well as computational tools for analysing CD spectra, with special emphasis on determinations of the net secondary structure of proteins.

The motivation for a new course on CD spectroscopy is due, in part, to recent advances in CD spectrometers and accessory equipment, plus the development of new software for data analysis. The initial synchrotron beamlines for CD spectroscopy were built at Tantalus and SURF II, moving to Aladdin and the NSLS, respectively, when these facilities opened. Within recent years, there has been a significant increase in interest in synchrotron radiation CD (SRCD). NSLS beamline U11 is being commissioned as a dedicated facility for UV CD spectroscopy and the Synchrotron Radiation Source at Daresbury (United Kingdom) recently brought beamline 12.1 online in the same role. SRCD instruments are also operating at the Institute for Storage Ring Facilities in at the University of Århus in Denmark, BESSY II in Berlin, HiSOR in Hiroshima, and the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Additionally, there are plans for new CD beamlines at the Diamond Light Source in the UK and at SOLEIL in France.

Students attending BioCD-2005 were from the United States, the UK, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal, and Mexico, and included graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and established investigators from industrial and governmental laboratories. Lectures were presented by Bonnie Wallace and Lee Whitmore (Birkbeck College, University of London), Robert Janes (Queen Mary College, University of London), John Sutherland and Lisa Miller (BNL), and Eugene Stevens (State University of New York at Binghamton). Sutherland, Wallace, Janes, and Miller organized the course. John Trunk, Denise Monteleone. and Michael Appel provided technical support. The hands-on laboratories included data collection on beamlines U9B and U11 plus a conventional (lab-based, commercial) CD spectrometer. On-line data analysis of protein structures used the DichroWeb web site, based at Birkbeck College in London.

Topics covered by the workshop included: Principles of CD Spectroscopy, CD of Proteins, Analyses of Protein Secondary Structures and Practical Considerations in Measurements of CD Spectra, Instrumentation for CD and SRCD, CD Bioinformatics, Demonstrations of Software for CD Spectroscopy, Time Resolved Spectroscopy, CD of Membrane Proteins, Data Bases for Analysis of CD Spectra, CD of Nucleic Acids and Polysaccharides (ES), Vibrational Spectroscopy, Linear Dichroism and Applications of SRCD to Structural and Functional Genomics. The workshop ended with an open discussion on the future of CD and SRCD in structural molecular biology.

BioCD-2005 was supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, and BNL's Biology and NSLS Departments.

RELATED LINKS: Workshop Website

ARTICLE BY: Dr. John Sutherland

PHOTO BY: Roger Stoutenburgh