Announcement of a working group for PDBx/mmCIF format adoption

From: Oliver Smart
Date: 22 March 2012 18:32


Announcement of a working group for the adoption of the PDBx/mmCIF format for deposition and as an exchange format between programs for macromolecular crystallography.

Following a meeting at PDBe Hinxton on 26/27 September 2011 organized by the wwPDB it was decided to form a working group for the adoption of the
PDBx/mmCIF format for deposition and as an exchange format between programs for macromolecular crystallography.

The old-style PDB format causes an increasingly large number of problems particularly for large structures, for structures with complex chemistry, and structures determined by methods other than X-ray crystallography. Rather than designing an entirely new PDB format it was decided to actively switch to the PDBx/mmCIF format, particularly for deposition. The facilitation of capturing more information in deposition and archiving should be part of this process. Our aim is to enable the direct use of PDBx/mmCIF format files in the major macromolecular crystallographic software tools.

The working group holds a teleconference about every six weeks. Current participants are:

Paul Adams, LBL (Phenix)
Pavel Afonine, LBL (Phenix)
Helen Berman, RCSB
Paul Emsley, Oxford University (Coot)
Rasmus Fogh, Cambridge University (CCPN)
Richard Gildea, LBL (Phenix)
Ralf Grosse-Kunstleve, LBL (Phenix)
Gerard Kleywegt, PDBe
Eugene Krissinel, STFC (CCP4)
Garib Murshudov, LMB-MRC (REFMAC)
Tom Oldfield, PDBe
Sameer Velankar, PDBe
John Westbrook, RCSB
Thomas Womack, Global Phasing (BUSTER)

Oliver Smart, Global Phasing (BUSTER) - Working Group Chair

Please contact me for any further details.

Regards,
Oliver
| Dr Oliver Smart                             |
| Global Phasing Ltd., Cambridge UK           |
| http://www.globalphasing.com/people/osmart/ |