Crystallography in Molecular Biology

"Crystallography in Molecular Biology", a NATO Advanced Study Institute, was held on September 12-21, 1985, at the Bi schenberg near Strasbourg, France. The meeting, co-sponsored by EMBO and CNRS (Centre National de 1 a Recherche Scientifique), was attended by partici pants from 18 countries. The aim of the course was to gi ve an overvi ew of crystallography related to molecular biology with special emphasis on recent results and new methodo 1 ogi ca 1 approaches. Thi s fi e 1 d of research is expandi ng enormously, partly due to its primordial contribution to biotechnology. Protei n engi neeri ng, s i te-di rected mutagenesi s, drug and vacci n desi gn are some of the direct beneficiaries of crystallographic investigations. The need for large quantities of structural informations and the necessity to tackle more and more complex problems are a strong incenti­ ve to develop new methods in order to overcome the varfous bottlenecks of a structure determi nati on. Impressi ve progresses have been made in the field of data collection, phase determination and refinement tech­ ni cs. Despite some recent achi evements crystal growth is the 1 ast se­ ri ous handi cap of the method. The course was a good opportunity for oarticipants to be up-to-date with many facets of single crystal crys­ tallography.