The Structural Biology Center 19ID undulator beamline: facility specifications and protein crystallographic results

• Published in: Journal of synchrotron radiation Vol. 13; no. Pt 1; p. 30
• Main Authors: Rosenbaum, Gerd, Alkire, Randy W, Evans, Gwyndaf, Rotella, Frank J, Lazarski, Krzystof, Zhang, Rong Guang, Ginell, Stephan L, Duke, Norma, Naday, Istvan, Lazarz, Jack, Molitsky, Michael J, Keefe, Lisa, Gonczy, John, Rock, Larry, Sanishvili, Ruslan, Walsh, Martin A, Westbrook, Edwin, Joachimiak, Andrzej
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-01-2006
• Subjects: Crystallography, X-Ray - instrumentation; Crystallography, X-Ray - methods; Equipment Design; Equipment Failure Analysis; Illinois; Molecular Biology - instrumentation; Molecular Biology - methods; Optics and Photonics - instrumentation; Protein Conformation; Proteins - analysis; Proteins - chemistry; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted - instrumentation; Synchrotrons - instrumentation; User-Computer Interface; Illinois
• ISSN: 0909-0495
• DOI: 10.1107/S0909049505036721

The 19ID undulator beamline of the Structure Biology Center has been designed and built to take full advantage of the high flux, brilliance and quality of X-ray beams delivered by the Advanced Photon Source. The beamline optics are capable of delivering monochromatic X-rays with photon energies from 3.5 to 20 keV (3.5-0.6 A wavelength) with fluxes up to 8-18 x 10(12) photons s(-1) (depending on photon energy) onto cryogenically cooled crystal samples. The size of the beam (full width at half-maximum) at the sample position can be varied from 2.2 mm x 1.0 mm (horizontal x vertical, unfocused) to 0.083 mm x 0.020 mm in its fully focused configuration. Specimen-to-detector distances of between 100 mm and 1500 mm can be used. The high flexibility, inherent in the design of the optics, coupled with a kappa-geometry goniometer and beamline control software allows optimal strategies to be adopted in protein crystallographic experiments, thus maximizing the chances of their success. A large-area mosaic 3 x 3 CCD detector allows high-quality diffraction data to be measured rapidly to the crystal diffraction limits. The beamline layout and the X-ray optical and endstation components are described in detail, and the results of representative crystallographic experiments are presented.