Macromolecular Crystallography is a technique used to study biological molecules such as proteins, viruses and nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) to a resolution higher than ~5Å. This high resolution helps elucidate the detailed mechanism by which these macromolecules carry out their functions in living cells and organisms.
Given its capability of delivering atomic-level detailed models of large and complex protein structures, macromolecular crystallography, based on X-ray diffraction, is the dominating structure determination technique in structural biology and drug discovery.
Beam line 14-1 is a bending magnet side station. It is dedicated for monochromatic, high-throughput macromolecular crystallography and optimized for SAD and MAD experiments. It can be run in a full remote access mode. It is equipped with a Rayonix MX325 CCD detector.
See the Macromolecular Crystallography website for technical details.
Beam line 12-2 is a PRT station, realized through third party funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation via the California Institute of Technology and available to general users 70%; it is a 134-pole, 1.0-Tesla in-vacuum undulator beam line with fully adjustable focus from 100 to 15 microns. smaller beams can be achieved by the use of microcollimators. It is optimized for microdiffraction, monochromatic, high-throughput and high-resolution macromolecular crystallography. It is SAD and MAD capable and can be run in a full remote access mode.
Beam line 12-1 employs a 154-pole, 1-Tesla in-vacuum undulator, a flat side-deflecting Rh-coated Si mirror, and a liquid nitrogen-cooled double-crystal Si(111) monochromator with a 0.01% energy bandpass. The beamline is also fitted with a multilayer with a ~1% energy bandpass that boosts the x-ray flux by a factor by about two orders of magnitude.. Kirkpatrick-Baez (KB) optical mirrors are used for 18:1 horizontal and 12:1 vertical beam focusing. The vertical mirror polish is ~100 nrad RMS and a vertical beam focus of ~5 µm FWHM.
Beam line 9-2 is a wiggler end station dedicated for monochromatic, high-throughput and high-resolution macromolecular crystallography and optimized for SAD and MAD experiments. It can be run in a full remote access mode. It is equipped with a Dectris Pilatus 6M PAD detector and a remote access controlled UV-Vis microspectrophotometer.
See the Macromolecular Crystallography website for details.
Beam line 7-1 is a 8-pole, 2.0-Tesla wiggler side-station beam line optimized for monochromatic, high-throughput, high-resolution macromolecular crystallography. It is SAD and MAD capable and can be run in a full remote access mode. It is equipped with an ADSC Q315R CCD detector. Currenlty 7-1 is dedicated to staff development and user training.
See the Macromolecular Crystallography website for details.