Impact and influence of crystallography across the sciences

Crystallography has influenced many of the traditional science disciplines and has opened a number of cross-disciplinary activities often bringing physicists, chemists, biologists and medical scientists together.

Synthesis of chemically stable covalent organic frameworks in water

The development of environmentally benign and scalable synthetic routes to chemically stable covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is key to their real world application in areas such as gas storage and proton conduction. Banerjee et al. [IUCrJ (2016), 3, 402–407] have exploited the high chemical stability of the keto-enamine linkage to develop a `green' water-mediated procedure, presenting a scalable route to chemically robust COFs.

A multicrystal diffraction data-collection approach for studying structural dynamics with millisecond temporal resolution

In situ crystallization using a Kapton sandwich assembly allows diffraction data to be recorded from multiple protein crystals at room temperature with millisecond temporal resolution at high-brilliance synchrotron X-ray radiation sources.

Constructing covalent organic frameworks in water via dynamic covalent bonding

The present work effectively highlights the utilization of Dynamic Covalent Chemistry (DCC) principles in conjunction with the keto–enol tautomerism to synthesize useful, stable, crystalline and porous Covalent Organic Frameworks (COFs) in water, which thereby merits over the conventional solvothermal COF synthesis protocol with its simpler and greener appeal.

Structures of parasite calreticulins provide insights into their flexibility and dual carbohydrate/peptide-binding properties

New insights into calreticulins are obtained by studying parasite species and combining a dissection strategy, X-ray crystallography and SAXS.

Angular correlations of photons from solution diffraction at a free-electron laser encode molecular structure

An atomic twinning structure is observed by averaging intensity correlations from many snapshots of gold nanoparticles in solution.

Towards an understanding of the propensity for crystalline hydrate formation by molecular compounds

The propensity for crystalline hydrate formation by molecular compounds that are devoid of strong hydrogen-bond donors has been analyzed and rationalized through a Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) survey, systematic hydrate screening experiments and computational studies.

Resolution of ab initio shapes determined from small-angle scattering

A quantitative resolution measure of the ab initio shapes restored from small-angle scattering data is introduced based on the variability of multiple reconstructions. The new measure is validated in simulated examples and its efficiency has been demonstrated in applications to experimental data.

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases: a crystallographer's view on a new class of biomass-degrading enzymes

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are a new class of metalloenzymes discovered in the last decade. LPMOs are now thought to be key enzymes in the biological and biotechnological degradation of biomass and are reviewed here from a structural biology viewpoint.