Our Goal

Our work at IMCA-CAT with HWI seeks to accelerate drug discovery research by developing and operating a state-of-the-art, industry-funded structural biology synchrotron beamline optimized for high-throughput macromolecular crystallography serving the pharmaceutical industry.

Our Research Group →

A Deeper Understanding

IMCA-CAT is a structural biology research facility for pharmaceutical drug discovery programs. It was established in 1992 to design, build, and operate a research facility at the Advanced Photon Source, a high energy synchrotron X-ray source at Argonne National Laboratory. Today, IMCA-CAT operates a state-of-the-art insertion device beamline for confidential and proprietary macromolecular crystallography experiments. To meet the demands of the pharmaceutical industry, IMCA-CAT is optimized for high-throughput data acquisition, is committed to generating the highest quality X-ray diffraction data, provides reliable access for proprietary research, ensures maximum efficiency, and invests in the facility to remain at the technical forefront for pharmaceutical research in structural biology.

Publications

• Accelerating pharmaceutical structure-guided drug design: a successful model. Lisa J Keefe, Vincent S Stoll. Drug Discov Today (2019) Feb;24(2):377-381. doi: 10.1016/j.drudis.2018.11.008. Epub 2018 Nov 15.
•  Conservation of Structure and Immune Antagonist Functions of Filoviral VP35 Homologs Present in Microbat Genomes. Megan R Edwards, Hejun Liu, Reed S Shabman, Garrett M Ginell, Priya Luthra, Parmeshwaran Ramanan, Lisa J Keefe, Bernd Köllner, Gaya K Amarasinghe, Derek J Taylor, Daisy W Leung, Christopher F Basler. Cell Rep. (2018) Jul 24;24(4):861-872.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2018.06.045.
• Pharmaceutical drug discovery at the IMCA-CAT Advanced Photon Source user facility Anne M Mulichak, Kevin Battaile, Joe Digilio, Lisa J. Keefe, ACA. 2015 August 15; doi:10.1107/S2053273315096114
• Spectral X-Ray Diffraction using a 6 Megapixel Photon Counting Array Detector. Ryan D. Muir, Nicholas R. Pogranichniy, Garth J. Simpson, J. Lewis Muir.  Proc. SPIE 9401, Computational Imaging XIII, 940109, 12 March (2015); doi: 10.1117/12.2079548
• Linear fitting of multi-threshold counting data with a pixel-array detector for spectral X-ray imaging. Ryan D Muir, Nicholas R Pogranichniy, Garth J Simpson, J Lewis Muir Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (2014) September 5, 1180-1187. doi: 10.1107/S1600577514014167
• Global radiation damage: temperature dependence, time dependence and how to outrun it. Matthew Warkentin, Jesse B Hopkins, Ryan Badeau, Anne M Mulichak, Lisa J Keefe, Robert E Thorne. J Synchrotron Radiat. (2013) Jan;20(Pt 1):7-13. doi: 10.1107/S0909049512048303. Epub 2012 Nov 29.
• Global radiation damage at 300 and 260 K with dose rates approaching 1 MGy s⁻¹. Matthew Warkentin, Ryan Badeau, Jesse B Hopkins, Anne M Mulichak, Lisa J Keefe, Robert E Thorne. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. (2012) Feb;68(Pt 2):124-33. doi: 10.1107/S0907444911052085. Epub 2012 Jan 17.
• Focusing, collimation and flux throughput at the IMCA-CAT bending-magnet beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. Irina Koshelev, Rong Huang, Timothy Graber, Mati Meron, J Lewis Muir, William Lavender, Kevin Battaile, Anne M Mulichak, Lisa J Keefe. J Synchrotron Radiat. (2009) Sep;16(Pt 5):647-57. doi: 10.1107/S0909049509022353. Epub 2009 Jul 9.
• Structure of the Neurospora SET domain protein DIM-5, a histone H3 lysine methyltransferase. Xing Zhang, Hisashi Tamaru, Seema I Khan, John R Horton, Lisa J Keefe, Eric U Selker, Xiaodong Cheng. Cell. (2002) Oct 4;111(1):117-27. doi: 10.1016/s0092-8674(02)00999-6.
• Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of 5-chlorolevulinate-modified bovine porphobilinogen synthase and the Pb(II)-complexed enzyme. H L Carrell, J P Glusker, L Shimoni, L J Keefe, C Afshar, M Volin, E K Jaffe. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. (1996) Mar 1;52(Pt 2):419-21. doi: 10.1107/S0907444995013163.
• Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of the human adenovirus serotype 2 proteinase with peptide cofactor. L J Keefe, S L Ginell, E M Westbrook, C W Anderson. Protein Sci. (1995) Aug;4(8):1658-60. doi: 10.1002/pro.5560040826.
• Accommodation of insertion mutations on the surface and in the interior of staphylococcal nuclease. L J Keefe, S Quirk, A Gittis, J Sondek, E E Lattman. Protein Sci. (1994) Mar;3(3):391-401. doi: 10.1002/pro.5560030303.
• The α aneurism: A structural motif revealed in an insertion mutant of staphylococcal nuclease. Lisa J. Keefe, D Shortle, J Sondek, Eaton E Lattman Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (1993) April 15, 90(8) 3275-3279; doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.8.3275