Welcome to the XFEL Hub at Diamond

Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) was the term coined to describe the protocols used to collect the first diffraction data from nanocrystals at the LCLS in Stanford, USA. Scientists there were able to exploit the ultrashort pulses generated by LCLS to collect single shot diffraction images from nanocrystals. Diffraction from such small crystals was made possible due to the high brilliance of the beam (many orders of magnitude more than achievable at a synchrotron). 

The SFX-UC brings together members of the scientific communities in Germany, United Kingdom, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland, United States and Australia. The project is being managed in Hamburg by Adrian Mancuso. The UK structural biology community is represented by Jim Naismith (lead PI, St. Andrews), Jan Lowe (LMB, Cambridge), Henry Chapman (CFEL, Hamburg), Martin Walsh (Diamond) and Dave Stuart (Oxford & Diamond).

At Diamond Dr Allen M. Orville has been appointed group leader of the XFEL Hub which will act as a focus for a number of activities:

• Development of hardware and software for SFX
• Provision of  a sample environments lab to enable users to prepare samples for current liquid jet technologies at operating hard X-ray FELS
• Provision of a user access program for SFX/SPB and currently operating hard X-ray FEL facilities worldwide.