Last updated 9/10/2019
The 5th Penn State Bioinorganic Workshop was held June 1 – 6, 2018 and had a total of 154 participants. Like previous workshops, the 2018 workshop featured three parts: (1) presentations given by faculty on their area of expertise, (2) hands-on training in small groups of typically 6 participants and 1-3 teachers in 21 different methods, and (3) presentations by the participants of their research (talks selected from abstracts and poster sessions).
The following scientists and many members of their groups helped teach the 2018 workshop: Jeff Agar (Northeastern University), Eckhard Bill (Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion), Amie Boal (Pennsylvania State University), Marty Bollinger (Pennsylvania State University), Squire Booker (Pennsylvania State University), Sarah Bowman (Hauptman-Woodward Institute), Kara Bren (University of Rochester), Wei-chen Chang (North Carolina State University), Joseph Cotruvo (Pennsylvania State University), Candace Davison (Pennsylvania State University), Serena DeBeer (Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion), Oliver Einsle (Freiburg University), Sean Elliott (Boston University), John Gerlt (University of Illinois), John Golbeck (Pennsylvania State University), Yisong (Alex) Guo (Carnegie Mellon University), Jesse Kleingardner (Messiah College), Carsten Krebs (Pennsylvania State University), Nicolai Lehnert (University of Michigan), Tapas Mal (Pennsylvania State University), Frank Neese (Max-Planck Institute for Coal Research), Carlos Pacheco (Pennsylvania State University), Christopher Pollock (CHESS, Cornell University), Denis Proshlyakov (Michigan State University), Hannah Shafaat (Ohio State University), Alexey Silakov (Pennsylvania State University), Troy Stich (University of California, Davis), Bennett Streit (Montana State University), Art van der Est (Brock University), and Dean Wilcox (Dartmouth College).
The first part of the workshop featured lectures by experts in the field on a variety of methods. The slides and recordings of these talks can be accessed below:
- Introduction to coordination chemistry (Frank Neese) [slides] [stream]
- CW EPR spectroscopy (Art van der Est) [slides] [stream]
- Pulse EPR spectroscopy (Alexey Silakov) [slides] [stream]
- NMR spectroscopy of paramagnets (Kara Bren) [slides] [stream]
- MCD spectroscopy (Nicolai Lehnert) [slides] [stream]
- Mössbauer spectroscopy (Eckhard Bill) [slides] [stream]
- Protein electrochemistry (Sean Elliott) [slides] [stream]
- Resonance Raman spectroscopy (Hannah Shafaat) [slides] [stream]
- X-ray crystallography (Oliver Einsle) [slides] [stream]
- Bioinformatics (John Gerlt) [slides] [stream]
- X-ray spectroscopy (Serena DeBeer) [slides] [stream]
- Isothermal titration calorimetry (Dean Wilcox) [slides] [stream]
The second part (the center piece of the workshop) provided hands-on training in 21 different methods to small groups (typically 6 or fewer “students” taught by 1-3 “teachers”). The various experimental topics were offered up to 12 times in 2-h blocks. Regular participants thus had the opportunity to learn up to 12 new methods. The “teachers” included faculty, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Hands-on training was provided in the following methods: (1) Fundamentals of EPR spectroscopy; (2) pulse EPR techniques; (3) spin labels in EPR spectroscopy; (4) analysis of EPR spectra; (5) Mössbauer spectroscopy; (6) stopped-flow absorption spectroscopy; (7) the freeze-quench method; (8) MCD spectroscopy; (9) resonance Raman spectroscopy; (10) X-ray spectroscopy; (11) X-ray crystallography; (12) protein electrochemistry; (13) prediction of spectroscopic parameters using density functional theory calculations; (14) high-resolution mass spectrometry; (15) small-molecule QQQ LC/MS; (16) isothermal titration calorimetry; (17) anaerobic protein purification; (18) cryoreduction experiments; (19) sequence similarity networks in bioinformatics; (20) NMR spectroscopy of paramagnetic molecules; and (21) cell biology of metals.
The third part was combined with the 4th Frontiers in Metallobiochemistry Symposium. The first day was an overlap session between the two meetings and featured the following four “test case” presentations that highlight how the many methods taught at the workshop and employed in bioinorganic research are integrated:
- Reactivity of High-Valent Non-Heme-Iron Centers (Frank Neese) [stream]
- Class I ribonucleotide reductases (JoAnne Stubbe) [stream]
- Nitrogenase (Lance Seefeldt) [stream]
- Cytochrome P450s (Mike Green) [stream]
In addition, the symposium featured six talks given by students or postdocs, in addition to numerous talks given by bioinorganic faculty colleagues from around the world. Both events featured a total of three 2-h poster sessions.