Created to serve pharmaceutical and
biotechnology industries, this consortium has the goal of automating
and accelerating crystallographic structure determination. It
comprises a new generation of software that is able to rapidly solve
protein:ligand structures.
Principal goals of the ASC include: 1.) achieving complete automation from the mounted crystal through to the generation of refined structures and electron density maps; 2.) developing the MIFit model-fitting program to meet the needs of protein crystallographers engaged in solving protein:ligand complexes and providing chemists with ready access to 3D structural models along with the experimental electron density data; 3.) providing tools for reporting structure data to a variety of end-users, with methods for structure analysis across families of related protein:ligand complexes; and 4.) responding to the needs of ASC members.
Building on the successes of the original Consortium, Phase 2 of the ASC runs from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2008. During Phase 1, the ASC succeeded in developing and delivering to members a functional system for accelerated protein:ligand structure determination. The primary goal for the next phase is to make MIFit and associated software tools the best fitting package available for both automatic and manual structure solution. Areas of concentration will include:
- Automatic structure solution
- Crystallographic information management
- Automated image integration
- Manual structure solution
- Reporting, OS support, and ease-of-use
Benefits of ASC membership are numerous and focused on providing for the specific needs of members. Participants meet twice a year to discuss developments and set goals. In addition to guiding development, members have first access to new software. Immediate benefits of joining the ASC include site licenses for data processing software (d*TREK), for model-fitting (MIFit) as well as a set of applications (MIExpert) for automated structure solution. The ASC version of MIFit has the new features developed by the consortium that are not in the standard version. Structure Solution Modules developed for StructureStudio will also be available to ASC members.
The basic fee for joining the ASC is $50K per year for 2 years with discounts for additional sites in the same company. Please contact russ.athay@rigaku.com for more information and licensing details.