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Biologische Systeme und Medizin Poster: Mi., 14:00–16:30 M-P190
Integrated Life Science Centre at PETRA-III
Stefan Fiedler 1 , Gleb Bourenkov 1 , Michele Cianci 1 , Christoph Hermes 1 ,
Victor Lamzin 1 , Manfred Roessle 1 , Dmitri Svergun 1 , Matthias Wilmanns 1
1 EMBL c/o DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22603 Hamburg
Background: The EMBL-Hamburg Outstation operates five synchrotron radiation
(SR) 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) at the DORIS-III storage
ring from DESY. 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 crystallization facilities
is been commissioned at present and will become externally available later in
2006.
Project: The European Molecular Biology Laboratory has recently made a proposal
for an Integrated Life Science Centre at PETRA-III. It 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 ultrahigh
resolution, that require specific SR energy regimes. 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. The
recently built high-throughput crystallization facility 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 characterization 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.