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

Emphasis is placed on new structure determinations, high-resolution structural analyses, drug design, protein engineering, site-directed mutagenesis projects, and support of the genome program. 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

SER-CAT 2009 Symposium and Board Meeting The 2009 SER-CAT Symposium and Board Meeting was held on March 20, 2009 at University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama. The attendees shared recent significant crystallographic research discoveries and practical beamline user's tools.

SER-CAT would like to thank this year's organizer, Dr. Joseph Ng, Diana Toh, Sheila Fore-Williams, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville for hosting such an outstanding symposium. We also would like to thank all of our speakers for their strong participation and support. A full program for the symposium and an abstract booklet may be found at (program and abstracts).

Congratulations to our 2009 Award Winners

Thank you to everyone who submitted to SER-CAT's call for award nominations and we applaud our 2009 winners!

Dr. James Hurley of NIDDK, NIH received the SER-CAT Outstanding Science Award in recognition of his work on Midbody targeting of the ESCRT machinery by a noncanonical coiled in CEP55. Dr. Hyung Ho Lee accepted the award on Dr. James Hurley's behalf and presented the results during the Symposium.

Mr. Guoxing Fu of Georgia State University received the SER-CAT Young Investigator Award in recognition of his work on Structural Basis for Substrate Specificity of Executioner Caspses.

The SER-CAT Awards were presented at the 2009 SER-CAT Symposium on March 20, 2009 in Huntsville, AL. Each recipient presented a 20-minute talk on his work at the Symposium. Congratulations to both of our 2009 winners!

2010 SER-CAT Young Investigator Award and Outstanding Science Award Nomination Forms

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 18mm Mounted litholoops are from Molecular Dimensions.

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

    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 from Boyd Technologies at Box 95, Manchester, CA 95459. You may call them at  (707) 882-1630; FAX: (707) 882-1745
     

  • 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