SINO-EU workshop on metalloproteins gives rise to metallogenomics

An intensive workshop was held at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of High Energy Physics on 27–28 June 2004. The workshop focused on the advances in synchrotron radiation studies of metalloproteins. It brought together experts of two powerful synchrotron radiation structural methods (XAFS and protein crystallography) and metalloproteins from pathogens. The combined approach to metalloproteins, making >30% of the genome, has been pioneered by the EU groups coming together through a series of workshops over the last five years (e.g. see the dedicated special issue of the Journal of Synchrotron Radiation, January 2003), which has now attracted the attention of leading groups in the USA and more recently from China. Proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb), already the focus of several programmes in the EU, attracted special attention. It was felt that this combined integrated approach is required to study this class of proteins in such an important pathogen of healthcare importance, and an initiative on metallogenomics with this unique science focus was urgently needed. The workshop was organised by Ziyu Wu and Isabella Ascone from the Beijing Synchrotron Facility and Orsay. The meeting was opened by Professor Chen, Director of the Chinese Acadamey of Sciences' Institute of High Energy Physics.

Figure 1 xThe delegates of the workshop. On the extreme right is Professor Ziyu Wu and third from the right is Professor Chen.