Blog - The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC)

Behind the scenes of the CSP Blind Test

Lily Hunnisett – Tue, 24 Aug 2021 17:11:00 GMT

How many groups took part in the first challenge of the 7th CSP Blind Test? What kind of experimental work goes on behind the scenes? Read on for answers, and an interesting Q&A with a team from Catalent. Catalent is a development and manufacturing partner that has provided the high-quality experimental data for this test of crystal structure prediction (CSP) methods.

Happy 50th anniversary to our friends at the PDB!

Ashley Moreno – Fri, 13 Aug 2021 14:39:00 GMT

This year the CCDC and the Protein Data Bank (PDB) are hosting a day-long symposium at the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Fall 2021 meeting. The conference theme is “the resiliency of chemistry,” and our symposium focuses on understanding enzyme function in 3D.

Guest Blog: Clare Crouchman - artwork inspired by crystallography

Alexandru Moldovan – Fri, 06 Aug 2021 13:46:00 GMT

The renovation at the CCDC building in Cambridge started in 2019. Artwork to educate and inspire our team and visitors on the theme of crystallography was a key requirement.

Celebrating CCDC Founder and Crystallographer, Dr Olga Kennard’s IUCr Ewald Prize

Suzanna Ward – Thu, 05 Aug 2021 16:34:00 GMT

CCDC Founder and crystallographer, Dr Olga Kennard recently received the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr)’s twelfth Ewald Prize for her invaluable contribution to the development of crystallographic databases — specifically the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). On 14^th August, we are delighted that Olga’s achievements will be celebrated in the Ewald Prize Lecture during the IUCr Congress Opening Ceremony.

Unique challenges from polymorphs in the agricultural sciences – A discussion on polymorphic cellulose with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr Alfred D. French

Ashley Moreno – Mon, 02 Aug 2021 16:44:00 GMT

Molecules that have different molecular packing arrangements despite identical chemical composition are said to be polymorphic. The variety of possible forms, each an allomorph (or polymorph), presents opportunities and challenges in various fields – including the drug industry and agriculture and forestry. In this blog, we talk to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Research Scientist Emeritus¹ and the Editor-in-Chief of Cellulose, Dr Alfred D. French about his work with cellulose, which has multiple polymorphs (allomorphs).

What's the difference between free Mercury and full-licence Mercury?

Peter Wood – Tue, 29 Jun 2021 14:37:00 GMT

The CCDC offers a selection of products and services free of charge for the benefit of the scientific community, which includes a free version of Mercury. While the free version supports several functionalities, many popular features are only available with a licence. Here we explain the differences between the free and paid licence versions of Mercury.

Announcing the 2020 Struchkov Prize winners for early-career work in crystallography

Carmen Nitsche – Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:28:00 GMT

The CCDC is excited to announce the 2020 Struchkov Prize winners. Advancing structural science is a global effort, and the CCDC has been a proud financial supporter of the Struchkov Prize Association (SPA) since 2015.

Celebrating the 1.1 millionth structure

Paul McKeown – Mon, 01 Feb 2021 16:33:00 GMT

Last week, the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) has passed a total of 1,100,000 unique crystal structures within the database, marking the first milestone on the way to 2,000,000 structures! It wasn’t too long ago we were celebrating reaching 1 million structures (just 20 months!) and despite a year of global challenges and difficulties we are excited to start 2021 with this new achievement. A massive thank you to everyone who has contributed, not only to this feat, but to the continual growth of the CSD.

CSD Educators: Chiara Massera Professor at the University of Parma

Suzanna Ward – Mon, 02 Nov 2020 11:00:00 GMT

This is the second blog in our CSD Educators series and I am delighted to introduce Chiara Massera from the University of Parma. In our CSD Educators series we will be hearing from lecturers and teachers about some of their experiences in education and their journey to using the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Chiara is a passionate educator with twenty years experience teaching students. She has helped to organise several international crystallography schools including last years “Crystallographic Information Fiesta” in Naples. We asked Chiara to tell us more about her journey to teaching others about the wonders of crystallography.

Blog Crystallography

Behind the scenes of the CSP Blind Test

Happy 50th anniversary to our friends at the PDB!

Guest Blog: Clare Crouchman - artwork inspired by crystallography

Celebrating CCDC Founder and Crystallographer, Dr Olga Kennard’s IUCr Ewald Prize

Unique challenges from polymorphs in the agricultural sciences – A discussion on polymorphic cellulose with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Research Scientist Emeritus, Dr Alfred D. French

What's the difference between free Mercury and full-licence Mercury?

Announcing the 2020 Struchkov Prize winners for early-career work in crystallography

Celebrating the 1.1 millionth structure

CSD Educators: Chiara Massera Professor at the University of Parma

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