Access to Crystallography Facility

User Information

Access to facility instrumentation is available to all researchers on the Vanderbilt campus. For researchers familiar with crystallography, access to instruments is available by contacting the Crystallography Facility Director to receive the necessary training for operation of the instruments. Researchers unfamiliar with crystallographic techniques may access the equipment and expertise through the Center for Structural Biology (CSB) Outreach program by completing the CSB Consultation form.

Following the initial contact, a project may be initiated with the intention of either establishing a collaboration with current crystallographers or beginning a project, which requires new user training in the facility.

Costs for using the instruments is assessed based on usage in the previous year and is a flat fee varying by usage tier. The crystallography users faculty committee meets quarterly to discuss, among many other issues, the costs for each usage tier.

Information for New Crystallographers

Training and support for researchers with no previous crystallography training is done on an individual basis. Anyone considering taking up crystallography should be committed to spending several months learning the techniques. However, this can be accomplished in segments as the project develops. The segments, listed in order, are:

1. crystallization
2. data collection and reduction
3. phasing techniques
4. model refinement
5. structure analysis
6. PDB deposition

X-ray Crystallographer Mailing List

The facility maintains a mailing list for discussion of Biomolecular X-ray Crystallography at Vanderbilt. Subscribe to the mailing list here.