Automation, Robotics and Remote Access at the SSRL Synchrotron

A Collaborative MacCHESS and SSRL Structural Molecular Biology Workshop

9:00 am to 4:00 pm on Tuesday, July 10th, 374 Wilson Lab, Cornell University
(Parking at Wilson Lab is closed please contact Nahla Minges for parking information nm632@cornell.edu )

Our goal is to initiate MacCHESS-SSRL collaborative beamtime for MacCHESS users at SSRL until CHESS is operational once again. This workshop will introduce participants to the Remote Access Crystallography Program at the SSRL synchrotron at Stanford, CA. The workshop will include lectures and hands-on training on using the SSRL facilities remotely. Participants will also learn about fixed target and injector methods for serial crystallography at SSRL and the LCLS X-ray free electron laser. A prior workshop (on Monday July 9th) will introduce MacCHESS staff on how to support users accessing the SSRL facility during the MacCHESS upgrade.

Workshop organizers: Marian Szebenyi (MacCHESS), Aaron Finke (MacCHESS), Jeney Wierman (SSRL)

To register please 1) send an email to Register and 2) create an account in the SSRL User Portal.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop computer for the hands-on session.

Schedule

Tuesday, July 10th, 374 Wilson Lab, Cornell University

Morning Session

9:00 'Introduction for users to remote data collection at SSRL' (Aina Cohen)

9:40 'Live remote access demonstration at SSRL' (Jeney Wierman)

10:30 Coffee Break (15 minutes)

10:45 Open Talk: 'New opportunities for serial crystallography at SSRL and the LCLS X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL)' (Aina Cohen)

11:30 'Connecting to SSRL Remotely - Installation of the NX Client' (Jeney Wierman) Aina Cohen

12:00 Lunch

Afternoon Session

1:30 Concurrent hands-on sessions (15 minute coffee break at 2:40 then groups will swap between sessions)

(i) 'Installation of NX client software and connecting to the SSRL crystallography beamlines' (Jeney Wierman) Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops.
(ii) 'Sample and pin preparation, and the use of SSRL cassettes, Unipucks and the new SAM microplates for room temperature collection' (Aina Cohen)

4:00 Workshop Conclusion

More information about this workshop

The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) provides state-of-the-art facilities for structural biology research to the academic research community. All SSRL crystallography beam lines are fully remote accessible and offer advanced robotics for automated crystal quality screening. An intense micro-focus beamline, BL12-2, enables rapid shutterless data collection using very small crystals. A UV-Vis absorption microspectrometer is available at BL9-2 to confirm the electronic state for metalloprotein complexes and poised intermediates and to monitor specific effects of radiation exposure. BL4-2 is dedicated to small angle scattering and diffraction studies on primarily non-crystalline systems.

Up to 288 cryo-cooled crystals can be mounted by the beamline robot (the Stanford Automated Mounter, or SAM) and screened for diffraction quality in a matter of hours without human intervention. The best quality crystals can then be remounted for the collection of complete X-ray diffraction data sets. Furthermore, the entire screening and data collection experiment can be controlled from the experimenter's home laboratory by means of advanced software tools that enable network-based control of the highly automated beamlines. This remote capability is now available on all SSRL macromolecular crystallography beamlines. During the last user run, over 97% of the user groups used the SAM robot and the remote access tools, some from as far away as Australia and New Zealand. The new technologies implemented at SSRL have eliminated the distinction between remote and local access to synchrotron resources. Furthermore, new technologies will enable remote access data collection using crystals at ambient temperatures and at controlled humidity. A similar facility for serial crystallography data collection is available at the LCLS-MFX instrument.

The BL42 small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) station is a permanent experimental station dedicated to structural biology and biophysics, providing state-of-the-art experimental facilities for structural studies on nucleic acids, proteins, protein assemblies, virus particles, biological fibers, lipid membranes and their complexes. A recently installed Pilatus3 X 1M detector provides excellent data quality for static as well as for fast time resolved experiments (up to a time resolution of 2ms). The station features a fully automated high-throughput solution scattering setup with an attached software pipeline that automatically performs all the necessary steps for data reduction and initial analysis. For aggregation prone samples or unstable complexes a highly automated size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) setup can be directly connected to the instrument allowing in-line SEC-SAXS experiments.

During this workshop, Aina Cohen will introduce the SMB Macromolecular Crystallography Resource at SSRL and LCLS and Jeney Wierman will present a live remote access demonstration and connect to some SSRL beamlines to present the features accessible to remote users. There will also be hands-on component covering sample and pin preparation, the use of SSRL cassettes and Unipucks, installation of the NX client software, assistance with SSRL User Portal registration and obtaining User accounts.