Staff R&D

A substantial part of the SSRL R&D program is dedicated to hardware and software development aimed to create a robust and user-friendly data environment for macromolecular crystallography experiments.

The Blu-Ice/DCS software efficiently handles diverse hardware control systems and hides the complexity of the instrument behind a flexible and easy to use graphical user interface.

The new data monitoring system makes use of AI to perform real-time analysis of diffraction images.

The Stanford Automated sample Mounting system (SAM) robot allows the users to mount crystals from the Blu-Ice interface. This system is critical for high-throughput sample screening and remote experiments using samples maintained at cryogenic temperatures or at room temperature and controlled-humidity conditions.

With the Remote Access tools users can monitor and control their experiments from remote locations, process their data and solve structures using the computers at SSRL, and work effectively with geographically dispersed collaborators.

The Autodrug project is aimed at developing user-specified efficient workflows for fully automated experiments

Other developments made available to users include an automated beamstop with an integrated beam sensor, a pressure cell for derivatization of Xe and Kr and MAD scripts for easy data processing.