EPICS controlled sample mounting robots at the GM/CA CAT.
GM/CA CAT at Sector 23 of the advanced photon source (APS) is an NIH funded facility for crystallographic structure determination of biological macromolecules by X-ray diffraction [R.F. Fischetti, et al., GM/CA canted undulator beamlines for protein crystallography, Acta Crystallogr. A 61 (2005) C139]. The facility consists of three beamlines; two based on canted undulators and one on a bending magnet. The scientific and technical goals of the CAT emphasize streamlined, efficient throughput for a variety of sample types, sizes and qualities, representing the cutting edge of structural biology research. For this purpose all three beamlines are equipped with the ALS-style robots [C.W.Cork, et al. Status of the BCSB automated sample mounting and alignment system for macromolecular crystallography at the Advanced Light Source, SRI-2003, San-Francisco, CA, USA, August 25-29, 2003] for an automated mounting of cryo-protected macromolecular crystals. This report summarizes software and technical solutions implemented with the first of the three operational robots at beamline 23-ID-B. The automounter's Dewar can hold up to 72 or 96 samples residing in six Rigaku ACTOR magazines or ALS-style pucks, respectively. Mounting of a crystal takes approximately 2 s, during which time the temperature of the crystal is maintained near that of liquid nitrogen.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- National Cancer Inst.; National Inst.of General Medical Science
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 939330
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/BIO/JA-60440; NIMAER; TRN: US0806755
- Journal Information:
- Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. A, Vol. 582, Issue 1 ; Nov. 11, 2007; ISSN 0168-9002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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