I'm incredibly proud to present this @actacrystf.iucr.org interview with Alex Mendez and Cydni Bolling on their first paper ever! The interview was co-led by Dr Graham Chakafana from Hampton University in the USA, who supervised the authors' undergraduate research. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rjI...

I've also purified ArnA by mistake (who hasn't?). Did mass spec before plunging it though, so never got this nice structure :)

S. Narasinga Rao and Manuel Soriano Garcia remember Rengachary Parthasarathy (1939-2025) doi.org/10.1107/S205...

40- and 71-substitution variants of hydroxynitrile lyase demonstrate the essential role of distant, indirectly acting residues to catalysis in α/β-hydrolase enzymes @UMNews #EngineeredProteins #HydroxynitrileLyases #HydrolaseFold doi.org/10.1107/S205...

The role of the hinge-loop composition in domain swapping in the c-Src SH3 domain has been studied by interchanging residues in the RT and n-Src loops between two SH3 domains #SH3Domains #DDomainSwapping #HingeLoop doi.org/10.1107/S205...

By integrating cutting-edge technologies and workflows, XFBLD-Platform addresses key challenges in fragment-based lead discovery, such as throughput, accuracy and data management #FragmentBasedLeadDiscovery #ProteinCrystallography #FragmentScreening doi.org/10.1107/S205...

The three-dimensional structure of the β2-microglobulin-BBM.1 antibody complex lays the groundwork for rational antibody design #Beta2Microglobulin #Antibody #SingleChainVariableFragment doi.org/10.1107/S205...

The September issue is here! tinyurl.com/bdeby9au The cover highlights XFBLD-Platform, a crystallographic fragment-screening platform at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Find out more at tinyurl.com/36rzxazr

The September issue is here! tinyurl.com/bdeby9au The cover highlights XFBLD-Platform, a crystallographic fragment-screening platform at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Find out more at tinyurl.com/36rzxazr

Jeroen Mesters remembers Rolf Hilgenfeld (1954-2025) doi.org/10.1107/S205...

M​. Carmen Salinas-Garcia et al.: Understanding domain swapping in the c-Src SH3 domain through hinge-loop mutagenesis ##SH3Domains##DDomainSwapping##HingeLoop@ualmeria@canalugr...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325006977

Colin T. Pierce et al.: Crystal structures of 40- and 71-substitution variants of hydroxynitrile lyase from rubber tree ##EngineeredProteins##HydroxynitrileLyases##HydrolaseFold@UMNews...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325007065

John Helliwell reviews Time-Resolved Methods in Structural Biology (Methods in Enzymology Volume 709) doi.org/10.1107/S205...

In 216 ligand-bound structures of human FABP isoforms, many at better than 1.2 Å resolution, an estimated 15% of the ligands had a different chemical composition to that expected #StructureBasedDrugDesign #FattyAcidBindingProteins #LigandBinding doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Paper Published: 3DEM Structure-Map Validation Recommendations Learn how wwPDB is addressing the challenge of validating 3DEM structures against primary map data

New paper describing use of photocaged nitric oxide for time resolved crystallography within fixed targets at XFEL and synchrotron - PhD work of Pete Smyth & Lewis Williams - great collaboration with @jarworrall.bsky.social, beamline I24 and SACLA. Funded by BBSRC journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...

A set of 229 crystal structures of human and mouse FABPs are reported with a median resolution of 1.2 Å, 216 of which have a ligand bound. Many structures also have additional affinity data. #IsoformSpecificity #CrystalPathologies #LigandBinding doi.org/10.1107/S205...

📄 New paper: 3DEM Structure Map Validation Recommendations Two new metrics assess model-to-map fitness in cryo-EM: 🔹 Q_relative_all → compares avg Q-score across PDB/EMDB 🔹 Q_relative_resolution → compares within similar resolution #3DEM #CryoEM #wwPDB

The influence of fatty acids and inhibitors on the conformational flexibility and bicelle/membrane association of human FABP4 was studied using NMR and a preparation completely free of endogenous ligands #NMRDynamics #MicelleAndBicelleBinding doi.org/10.1107/S205...

A comprehensive statistical analysis of how Q-scores are related to reported resolution, based on ∼10 000 EMDB maps and associated PDB atomic coordinate models archived in the EMDB #CryoEM #QScores #Validation doi.org/10.1107/S205...

How can you find consistent biological 3D structures in heavily contaminated electron microscopy data sets without using any prior knowledge? #CryoEM #SingleParticle #Reconstruction doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Note for diary: #CCP4SW 2026 will be held between 7-9 January 2026 at EMCC, Nottingham. Topic is "Ligands in Focus: Decoding Ligand Binding in Modern Structural Biology". More information will be on the SW website soon!

Liqing Huang et al.: XFBLD-Platform: a crystallographic fragment-screening platform at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility ##FragmentBasedLeadDiscovery##ProteinCrystallography##FragmentScreening... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325006801

Elspeth Garman highlights a triumvirate of papers from the Lead Discovery Department at F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd in Basel, Switzerland presenting a detailed multi-faceted study of fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) structures doi.org/10.1107/S205...

The August issue is out! journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202... On the cover: ~15% of the ligands in a high-resolution set of FABP structures had a different chemical composition to that expected from the starting materials or final synthesis product. Find out more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Rao and Soriano Garcia: Rengachary Parthasarathy (1939–2025): a life journey from Nagari to San Jose ... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S205979832500628X

The August issue is out! journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202... On the cover: ~15% of the ligands in a high-resolution set of FABP structures had a different chemical composition to that expected from the starting materials or final synthesis product. Find out more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Wu, Zeng, Wang and Wei: Crystal structure of the β2-microglobulin–BBM.1 antibody complex reveals the molecular basis of antigen recognition ##Beta2Microglobulin##Antibody##SingleChainVariableFragment... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325006370

Protein-ligand complexes are all the rage with OpenBind+other efforts launching 3 amazing papers describing 229 protein-ligand structures just dropped in @actacrystd.iucr.org A tremendous teaching text, but I disagree on the discussed potential for misuse. Read more fraserlab.com/2025/07/29/E...

Food for thought here for anyone not working at TRUE atomic resolution…

Jeroen R. Mesters: Rolf Peter Hilgenfeld (1954–2025) doi.org/10.1107/S205... #IUCr

John R. Helliwell: Time-Resolved Methods in Structural Biology, Methods in Enzymology Volume 709. Edited by Peter Moody and Hanna Kwon. Academic Press, New York, 2024, pp. 412. ISBN-10 044331456X, ISBN-13 978-0443314568. doi.org/10.1107/S205... #IUCr

Andreas Ehler et al.: A high-resolution data set of fatty acid-binding protein structures. III. Unexpectedly high occurrence of wrong ligands #StructureBasedDrugDesign #FattyAcidBindingProteins #LigandBinding doi.org/10.1107/S205... #IUCr

Andreas Ehler et al. A high-resolution data set of fatty acid-binding protein structures. II. Crystallographic overview, ligand classes and binding pose #IsoformSpecificity #CrystalPathologies #LigandBinding doi.org/10.1107/S205... #IUCr

Fabio Casagrande et al.: A high-resolution data set of fatty acid-binding protein structures. I. Dynamics of FABP4 and ligand binding #NMRDynamics #MicelleAndBicelleBinding #ResidualLigands doi.org/10.1107/S205... #IUCr

Elspeth F. Garman: Perspective on a large-scale ligand structure characterization ... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325006631

To investigate coagulation factor XII ligand binding, crystal structures of its five N-terminal domains and of its FnII domain bound to Zn2+ were determined #FactorXII #FibronectinTypeIIDomain #KringleDomain doi.org/10.1107/S205...

It's day 4 of #ISMBECCB25 so do drop by the IUCr stand! Now featuring the IUCr Journals tablecloth and a rare appearance by our Managing Editor!

We're at #ISMBECCB2025! Come and chat to us about the IUCr and our journals!

Crystal structure of coagulation factor XII N-terminal domains 1–5: conformational change of the factor XII fibronectin type II latch loop Read more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Structural studies of the intrinsically disordered regions of human SFPQ reveal that it is capable of swapping dimer partners with itself, potentially contributing to phase separation and impacting disease processes. #PhaseSeparation #Disorder #Flexibility doi.org/10.1107/S205...

The upgraded DoubleMesh&Collect method automatically analyses the diffraction images of two mesh scans #Dozor #DozorM2 #Resheteau doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Grigore Pintilie et al.: Q-score as a reliability measure for protein, nucleic acid and small-molecule atomic coordinate models derived from 3DEM maps ##CryoEM##QScores##Validation@ucsandiego...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325005923

A preconditioned stochastic gradient descent approach can potentially enable a simple and unified approach to ab initio reconstruction and high-resolution refinement with faster convergence speed and higher flexibility #CryoEM #HomogeneousRefinement doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Cong T. S. Van et al.: Probabilistic single-particle cryo-EM ab initio 3D reconstruction in SIMPLE ##CryoEM##SingleParticle##Reconstruction... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325005686

Our July issue is out tinyurl.com/2u2cj472 On the cover: structural studies of the intrinsically disordered regions of human SFPQ reveal that it is capable of swapping dimer partners with itself. Find out more at doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Our SFPQ paper is out! 👌 If you're interested in disordered proteins, phase separation, SAXS/SANS, or mass spectrometry, give it a read 🧬

M​uhammad Saleem et al.: Crystal structure of coagulation factor XII N-terminal domains 1–5 ##FactorXII##FibronectinTypeIIDomain##KringleDomain@UniofNottingham@universityleeds...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325005297

Heidar J. Koning et al.: Structural dynamics of IDR interactions in human SFPQ and implications for liquid–liquid phase separation ##PhaseSeparation##Disorder##Flexibility@uwanews@unimelb...##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325005303

Igor Melnikov et al.: Enhanced capabilities for multi-crystal data collection based on double mesh scans ##Dozor##DozorM2##Resheteau... ##IUCrhttps://journals.iucr.org/paper?S2059798325005145