Want to interpret protein and DNA structures but have no background in structural biology? Need to make publication-quality figures of protein structures and molecular animations for your seminars? This is a hands-on nanocourse for you. We will introduce you to SBGrid Suite – a complete applications environment for structural biology. After learning basic UNIX commands and an introduction to the RCSB Protein Data Bank file formats you will scrutinize the structure of clathrin coats, 7.7 MDa hexagonal barrel particles. We will visualize macromolecular properties including side-chain interactions, electrostatic potential, hydrophobicity and solvent accessible area, as well as perform secondary structure identification and structure quality verification. You will also learn how to transform coordinates, assemble biological units using symmetry operators, and animate structures. Software tools covered in this 10 Å course will include ccp4mg, chimera, coot, whatif and procheck. Class will take place in SGM 502 and the CMCD computer rooms.
Course Director: Piotr Sliz
Course Lecturers: Piotr Sliz, James Chou and Stephen C. Harrison
- First Meeting: Monday, September 18th, 1-4pm, SGM 502
- Second Meeting: Monday, September 25th, 1-4pm , SGM 502
Please Note: Since the class size is limited by the number of workstations, only registered students should attend the lecture sessions.
If you are not a registered student and want to attend this nanocourse, please contact Meg Bentley
(meg_bentley@hms.harvard.edu). The course director may offer additional sessions if there is sufficient interest.