From: O. Byron <ob1@leicester.ac.uk>
  To  : rasmb@bbri.eri.harvard.edu
  Date: Thu, 18 May 1995 13:22:06 GMT

Re: sedimentation database

Hello RASMB people

I would like to add my voice to the "no to raw sedimentation data; yes
to vbar, viscosity and buffer data" camp of Jack Correia and John Philo. 

At Leicester we do a lot of viscosity and density determinations (for buffers)
and the odd vbar measurement. I'm sure we'd be happy to share these data
with fellow RASMBers. What we don't have are data on vbar for nucleic 
acids (or oligos). These are more sensitive to solvent composition than
the corresponding parameter for proteins and a databank would be a gem
for this purpose.

But a databank of raw sedimentation data would soon become large and 
would require management. I agree with the philosphy that RASMB is
precisely the place to advertise for raw data should one be interested
in it.

However a database of sedimentation coefficients, ks coefficients and
so on complete with information on experimental conditions might be useful
as often these data are hidden in publications and are hard to extract
on literature searches. Although, again, one can ask RASMB for these....

Finally I'd like to suggest that extinction coefficients be included in
the proposed database as these really are non-trivial to measure each
time.

Best wishes to all-

Olwyn Byron
NCMH, University of Leicester, UK.