The Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT) is an organization consisting of 25 member institutions, formed in 1997 to provide third generation x-ray capabilities to macromolecular crystallographers and structural biologists in the southeastern region of the U.S. 

Emphasis is placed on de novo SAD/MAD structure determination, high-resolution structural analyses, large unit cells, drug design, structural genomics, soft X-ray data collection and next-generation beamline automation. SER-CAT is located at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, and is operated by the University of Georgia, with Professor Bi-Cheng Wang as Director.

Please peruse the pages of our website to find out more about SER-CAT and how we are "shining a new light" on protein crystallography.  Have a look at The SER-CAT Spectrum, our biannual newsletter, to learn about recent breakthroughs.  As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome. 

Thank you for visiting! 

 

*ANNOUNCEMENTS*

General Information

2010 SER-CAT Symposium and Board Meeting

The 2010 SER-CAT Symposium was held on March 19 at the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  The attendees shared their most recent significant structural and crystallographic research discoveries, as well as updated information on capabilities of SER-CAT and planned improvements for micro diffraction and fast data collection.  

SER-CAT kindly thanks to Dr. Leighton Coates and the Spallation Neutron Source at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for hosting such a successful symposium.  We would also like to thank Al Elkebus and Carol Zimmer for their assistance with the registration and meeting arrangements, and each of the attendees and speakers for their strong participation and support during the event.

A copy of the symposium program and an abstract booklet may be found at (program and abstracts)

Congratulations to Our 2010 Outstanding Science Award Winner

Dr. Xihua Ji of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health received the 2010 SER-CAT Outstanding Science Award in recognition of his work on  Structure of ERA in complex with the 3' end of 16S rRNA: implications for ribosome biogenesis.

Dr. Ji attended SER-CAT research symposium on March 19, 2010 and presented a talk describing his work.  He was given a plaque as part of the award to commemorate his research accomplishment. 

SER-CAT would like to say congratulations again to Dr. Ji, and thank each of you who submitted nominations for 2010 award event.

SER-CAT AWARD WINNERS

Member Services

In an effort to serve our members, SER-CAT is pleased to provide information on various membership requests, which may be viewed at the below links.

Lease or Sale of Existing Membership Time

Jobs Available

Others

Early History of SER-CAT
In 2007, SER-CAT celebrated a very special milestone!  In honor of the occasion, Dr. Bi-Cheng Wang, SER-CAT Director, has created a special presentation to mark the achievement. You are invited to view SER-CAT: The First 10 Years as a PDF slideshow to see a chronological history of our program. We sincerely express our gratitude to all  of you who supported our growth, and look forward to many more productive years at SER-CAT! 

The SER-CAT Approach!
We would like to share with our site visitors, a slide presentation given by SER-CAT Director, Dr. Bi-Cheng Wang, at the 9th International Conference on Biology and Synchrotron Radiation in Manchester, England, entitled, "Remaining Challenges in Long Wavelength Phasing: The SER-CAT Approach" (PDF). This presentation highlights SER-CAT's work on data collection at all possible wavelengths, including sulfur phasing.

The Beamline dedication ceremony in Argonne, IL

Celebrating the official opening of SER-CAT's 1st beamline, October 2002, APS, ANL

 

  • Users should avoid bringing firewire drives with metal cases for use at the beamlines. The metal, being a wonderful heat conductor, is causing thermal failure because of the long download time required for data collection.

  • Both BM Robot and ID Robot are fully commissioned   First time robotics users must contact Elizabeth Kolbusz (SER-CAT User Support Coordinator) prior to their visit.

    The ALS Style magnetic caps are available from Hampton Research, P/N HR4-779

    The 18mm Mounted litholoops are available from Molecular Dimensions.

    The dry shipping dewars compatible with SER-CAT puck holder are from
    Taylor-Wharton (Model: CX100 or CXR100). The product vendor is:
    www.discountcryo.com.

    The SER-CAT robot pucks, puck holder and tools are available from the University of Georgia Instrument Shop, 955 East Whitehall Rd., Athens, GA 30602. Please Contact Mr. Lewis Fortner via e-mail (lewisf@uga.edu) or  Fax (706-542-7921) for a pricing and availability

  • SER-CAT Featured on World Business Review
     SER-CAT was featured on the TV program World Business Review, which aired on the Bravo network in February 2005.  You may view the segment in streaming audio following the links below.  We have received a large amount of positive feedback on the film, which continues to be a valuable informational resource for our program.  If you would like a copy on CD or DVD for your personal use or distribution, please contact Lily Li at lily@secsg.uga.edu

Windows Media video (300K)
Real Player video (300K)

Photo of the Advanced Photon Source in Argonne, IL.

 

2009 SER-CAT Symposium and Board Meeting

March 2009, Huntsville, AL