Branch meetings | Structural Nucleic Acid Anticancer Research Society

Grow protein crystals (and in the future nucleic acid crystals)

We introduce student members to wet-lab research through the growth and optimization of protein (and in the future) nucleic acid crystals and small molecule inhibitors for structure determination.

This provides students with a chance to experience what wet-lab research is like, learn micropipette skills, learn how to set up crystallization experiments, and learn the importance of protein and nucleic acid crystallization for therapeutic drug discovery without the traditional barriers to entry for undergraduate research: (1) faculty mentorship requirement barrier, (2) materials and resources barrier, (3) time and space of a research lab barrier.

Learn how to solve structures with PHENIX and Coot

We introduce student members to dry-lab research through the building, solving, and refining of protein and nucleic acid structures from density maps with research-grade programs PHENIX and Coot.

These activities help students see how macromolecules and their inhibitor complexes can be solved, help them gain Linux, bash, and computational skills, and help them understand the therapeutic drug design process on the molecular level.

Give presentations on structural biology related topics

We provide student members the opportunity to give presentations about crystallography and structural biology related research topics.

This weekly activity not only gives the presenting student practice preparing a presentation and learning about important research occurring in the field but also provides the students in the audience a chance to learn how to pose questions and interact with the presenter, just like in research group meetings and at conference presentations.

Experiment with growing different types of crystals

We provide students with the location and opportunity to grow inorganic crystals such as aluminum potassium sulfate (alum), monoammonium phosphate (MAP), and copper sulfate CUSO4) crystals.

These projects help students see how cool and interesting growing crystals is like and provides students interested in science a way to explore their creativity in growing different forms of crystals and learn about crystal-growth topics, including nucleation, crystal-seeding, and solution saturation levels, while at the same time becoming very familiar with standard wet-lab equipment and with measuring volumes and masses.

Experiment with growing highlighter ink and crystal inducers

We provide students the opportunity to grow glow-under-UV light highlighter ink crystals as well as introduce other variables into the experiment such as rock crystal inducers.

Incorporating these additional experimental variables help the students become more intrigued and excited in the crystal-growing process while empowering them to make creative decisions for their own crystal-growing experiments.

Grow inorganic crystals for US Crystal Growing competition

We help students compete for the US Crystal Growing competition each year, providing students with alum for the competition, guiding students in the crystal-growth process, and helping students ship off their crystals to the University of Buffalo for crystal judging.

Participating in the competition provides students the chance to show off their best crystal-growing work and be recognized for their outstanding crystal-growth capabilities.