Abigail Talbot
PIPS Host Organisation: Diamond Light Source
Project Title: Using the I23 Beamline to Build the Protein Structure of LMO4

During her placement at Diamond Light Source, Abigail Talbot worked at Beamline I23, which specializes in long-wavelength macromolecular crystallography and phasing. Her role at the beamline involved aiding in manufacturing loops for the crystals to be loaded on, fishing crystals out of solution, and using bioinformatic techniques to build an atomic structure of the protein once the crystal had diffracted using the CCP4 suite of software.

During her placement, Abigail refined her micromanipulation skills, learned the basics of using the command line and Linux, and gained an in-depth understanding of the Coot molecule builder software. This experience allowed her to better understand the dynamics of polypeptides and how structures are formed.

Working in a large company outside of academia was an eye-opening experience for Abigail, as she had never worked in industry before. She appreciated having more structure and set goals to complete each week. Abigail is most proud of how quickly she picked up new skills, especially bioinformatic ones, as she did not have much previous experience in that area