| ABSTRACT: |
Background: Over the last 30 years the EMBL-Hamburg Outstation has built up synchrotron radiation (SR) beamlines in life sciences at the DORIS-III storage ring on DESY campus, Hamburg, Germany. At present, it operates five beamlines for applications in Macromolecular Crystallography (MX), one for Small Angle X-ray Scattering of Biological samples (BioSAXS) and one beamline for X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Biological samples (BioXAS). During 2000-05, more than 1500 external projects from research groups across the world (about 85% from Europe) have been carried out at the EMBL-Hamburg facilities. In addition, one of the largest high-throughput crystallisation facilities is been commissioned at present and will become externally available later in 2006. Recently, DESY has decided to convert the 2.3 km PETRA ring into a dedicated synchrotron radiation source (PETRA-III) with calculated optical parameters in terms of emittance, energy and beam divergence equal or even superior to leading synchrotron facilities world-wide. Project: The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has recently made a proposal for an Integrated Life Science Centre at PETRA-III (see Figure). First, the proposal is driven by the unique opportunities offered by PETRA-III to build SR beamlines for the most demanding applications in life sciences. Secondly, the proposal reflects the expressed needs by a large number of research groups from across Europe, requesting opportunities for the combined use or state-of-the-art SR beamlines and their integration into joint sample preparation and on-line data processing facilities. The proposed centre includes, at present: - Two MX beamlines; the first one will be tuned for microfocusing to allow testing and data acquisition of extremely small crystals of biological macromolecules; the second one will be tuned for applications over a large energy range to allow data acquisition at the absorption edges of a broad range of different elements to allow experimental phase determination, and specific applications, such as structures at ultra-high resolution, that require specific SR energy regimes. In addition, EMBL is offering assistance to become involved into the coordination of planning, construction and operation of a third MX beamline with focus on high-throughput applications, to be funded by other research organisations. - One BioSAXS beamline for large scale shape and quaternary structure analysis of individual macromolecules and functional complexes and for cutting edge applications such as ultra-fast kinetic studies. - A joint sample preparation area and data processing area, allowing to provide a complete pipeline for structural biology experiments using synchrotron radiation. A high-throughput crystallisation facility (currently under construction, externally funded) will be integrated into this area. The Integrated Life Science Centre will be located at the last two straight sections at PETRA-III. The close proximity of tits components will allow to establish direct pipelines ranging from the preparation and characterisation of samples, their transfer to SR beamlines, X-ray data acquisition and on-line data processing and interpretation, with options for remote experiment monitoring and operation. All endstations will be equipped with the state-of-the-art instruments to provide a user-friendly and highly automated experiment environment, permitting a high-throughput of experiments at the future PETRA-III beamlines. Our proposal has been approved and supported by two different reviewing panels and formally secured financial support is expected soon. |
