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Title: Guiding synchrotron X-ray diffraction by multimodal video-rate protein crystal imaging

Journal Article · · Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online)

Synchronous digitization, in which an optical sensor is probed synchronously with the firing of an ultrafast laser, was integrated into an optical imaging station for macromolecular crystal positioning prior to synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Using the synchronous digitization instrument, second-harmonic generation, two-photon-excited fluorescence and bright field by laser transmittance were all acquired simultaneously with perfect image registry at up to video-rate (15 frames s–1). A simple change in the incident wavelength enabled simultaneous imaging by two-photon-excited ultraviolet fluorescence, one-photon-excited visible fluorescence and laser transmittance. Development of an analytical model for the signal-to-noise enhancement afforded by synchronous digitization suggests a 15.6-fold improvement over previous photon-counting techniques. This improvement in turn allowed acquisition on nearly an order of magnitude more pixels than the preceding generation of instrumentation and reductions of well over an order of magnitude in image acquisition times. These improvements have allowed detection of protein crystals on the order of 1 µm in thickness under cryogenic conditions in the beamline. Lastly, these capabilities are well suited to support serial crystallography of crystals approaching 1 µm or less in dimension.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Institutes of Health (NIH); USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1339575
Journal Information:
Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Online), Vol. 23, Issue 4; ISSN 1600-5775
Publisher:
International Union of CrystallographyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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