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Canadian macromolecular crystallography facility: a suite of fully automated beamlines

  • Published:
Journal of Structural and Functional Genomics

Abstract

The Canadian light source is a 2.9 GeV national synchrotron radiation facility located on the University of Saskatchewan campus in Saskatoon. The small-gap in-vacuum undulator illuminated beamline, 08ID-1, together with the bending magnet beamline, 08B1-1, constitute the Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (CMCF). The CMCF provides service to more than 50 Principal Investigators in Canada and the United States. Up to 25% of the beam time is devoted to commercial users and the general user program is guaranteed up to 55% of the useful beam time through a peer-review process. CMCF staff provides “Mail-In” crystallography service to users with the highest scored proposals. Both beamlines are equipped with very robust end-stations including on-axis visualization systems, Rayonix 300 CCD series detectors and Stanford-type robotic sample auto-mounters. MxDC, an in-house developed beamline control system, is integrated with a data processing module, AutoProcess, allowing full automation of data collection and data processing with minimal human intervention. Sample management and remote monitoring of experiments is enabled through interaction with a Laboratory Information Management System developed at the facility.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Brennan Bonnet for helping with preparing figures. Research described in this paper was performed at the Canadian Light Source, which is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the National Research Council Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Province of Saskatchewan, Western Economic Diversification Canada, and the University of Saskatchewan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Candian Light Source Inc, 101 Perimeter Road, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 0X4, Canada

    Pawel Grochulski, Michel Fodje, Shaunivan Labiuk, James Gorin, Kathryn Janzen & Russ Berg

  2. College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9, Canada

    Pawel Grochulski

  3. Department of Biochemistry, University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Rd, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5E5, Canada

    Michel Fodje

Authors
  1. Pawel Grochulski
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  2. Michel Fodje
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  3. Shaunivan Labiuk
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  4. James Gorin
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  5. Kathryn Janzen
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  6. Russ Berg
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pawel Grochulski or Michel Fodje.

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Grochulski, P., Fodje, M., Labiuk, S. et al. Canadian macromolecular crystallography facility: a suite of fully automated beamlines. J Struct Funct Genomics 13, 49–55 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10969-012-9123-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10969-012-9123-9

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