Attaining atomic resolution from in situ data collection at room temperature using counter-diffusion-based low-cost microchips.
Acta Crystallogr D Struct Biol 76:751-758 2020
The ESRF and EMBL Grenoble have long worked together for the provision of advanced macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines. Towards this goal, ESRF and EMBL Grenoble constructed and commissioned a tunable, high-intensity and variable focus MX beamline on ID30B at the ESRF. The EMBL Grenoble beamline scientist for ID30B is Andrew McCarthy, team leader of the Synchrotron Crystallography Team, who is co-responsible for the beamline and has been involved in the project since its inception.
ID30B is equipped with a MD2S diffractometer, the first of its kind, enabling data collection in both standard cryogenic and in situ crystallisation plate formats. The MD2S and recently installed EIGER2 X 9M detector allow sophisticated synchronous high-speed data collections such as raster scanning and synchrotron serial crystallography experiments to be performed. To facilitate the increased throughput, the beamline was equipped with the first new-generation EMBL-ESRF flexible sample changer (FlexHCD) based on 6-axis robotics that is capable of transferring pins mounted in both SPINE and Unipuck-type formats. Automated X-ray diffraction data collection protocols developed on MASSIF-1 are available on ID30B (and all EMBL-ESRF jointly operated beamlines) and routinely used. A mini-kappa (MK3) goniometer head is also available on ID30B for multi-orientation data collection strategies and efforts are underway to facilitate their use in a more automated manner.
ID30B returned to user operation in August 2020 following the ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS) accelerator upgrade. The exceptional X-ray characteristics from the ESRF-EBS have enabled several improvements. One was the installation of 2D Beryllium Compound Refractive Lenses (CRLs) for X-ray focusing for optimised beam size selection. This also facilitates X-ray imaging experiments to be envisaged using an unfocused X-ray beam at the sample position. We’re currently performing preliminary experiments to determine the feasibility of performing moderate resolution (500 nm to 1 µm) X-ray imaging experiments of biological samples on ID30B. All these efforts will ensure that ID30B remains at the forefront of structural biology beamlines worldwide.
ID30B is run as a collaboration between the EMBL-Grenoble Synchrotron Crystallography Team and the ESRF Structural Biology Group. See the ID30B webpage for more information on the technical details and the ESRF website for application details.