The SPB/SFX instrument is supported by a partnership between the European XFEL and the Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SFX) user consortium.
Serial crystallography has become one of the leading applications of X-ray FELs, since it allows structure determination from samples too small for conventional analysis, avoids radiation damage, provides higher-quality data than achievable otherwise, and allows time-resolved measurements over time scales spanning 12 orders of magnitude. The popularity of the technique places demands on the availability of instrumentation and beamtime. Additionally, micro- or nano-crystals of macromolecules cannot easily be characterised to determine their suitability for serial crystallography with FEL pulses, other than measuring diffraction with FEL pulses. That is, there is a great need for sample screening where data may be collected in a minute or less per sample or sample condition, in combination with measurements of full datasets.
The SFX user consortium was thus formed with the goal of providing instrumentation for high-throughput serial femtosecond crystallography and solution scattering measurements. By refocusing the spent beam passing through the hole in the detector of the upstream region of the SPB/SFX instrument to a second downstream sample chamber, it would be possible to run two experiments at once. The efficient application of this idea requires a high level of automation and reliability, which needs dedicated, purpose-built instrumentation. Furthermore, for most macromolecular crystals, a diffraction camera consisting of a detector with about 2000 x 2000 pixels is required. The consortium will provide optics and components to refocus the beam, a measurement station with liquid-jet sample delivery, associated diagnostics, and suitable diffraction detector (with a DAQ system), a pump laser system, and infrastructure modifications and additions to support the instrument.
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Institution |
Spokesperson |
Location |
|---|---|---|
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La Trobe University |
Melbourne, Australia |
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University of Gothenburg |
Gothenburg, Sweden |
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Max Planck Institute for Medical Research |
Heidelberg, Germany |
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Slovak Academy of Sciences |
Bratislava, Slovakia |
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Uppsala University |
Uppsala, Sweden |
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Stockholm University |
Stockholm, Sweden |
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Karolinska Institute |
Solna, Sweden |
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Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY |
Hamburg, Germany |
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Lund University |
Lund, Sweden |
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Arizona State University |
Tempe, Arizona, USA |
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University of Hamburg |
Hamburg, Germany |
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Diamond Light Source |
Oxfordshire, UK |
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University of St. Andrews |
St. Andrews, UK |
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Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology |
Cambridge, UK |
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Paul Scherrer Institute |
Villigen, Switzerland |
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University of Lübeck |
Lübeck, Germany |