Biology infrastructure at the XFEL

From: Victor Lamzin
Date: 24 January 2012 10:41


The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) at DESY, Hamburg, Germany, have a keen interest in the development of FEL-based applications in structural biology. Within this framework the EMBL, together with international collaborators from Russia, Sweden and Germany, propose to construct a biology infrastructure at the XFEL facility (expected completion in 2016) to enable biological experiments using the high brilliance, ultrashort pulse duration and high repetition rate coherent X-ray radiation.

The proposed biological sample infrastructure facility will provide:
- support to the international life-science community in generation and handling of challenging samples in immediate proximity to XFEL instruments.
- appropriate selection, quality control and evaluation of samples, including correlative imaging, immediately prior to XFEL experiments.
- standardized technology for data interpretation, including computation and validation of structural models.

In order to ensure efficient operation of the facility and provide optimal services for the international biological community we seek your input to identify the requirements necessary to support these novel biological imaging experiments. We would appreciate your input in the web-based questionnaire available at http://www.embl-hamburg.de/xfel_cgi-bin/questionnaire

The results of this survey will be used to identify the most pressing needs that should be taken into account during planning and construction of the infrastructure.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.