Fragment Screening Services

Sample screening and preparation

Our specialist XChem lab is designed to optimise your fragment screening campaign. Here we can screen the crystals, identifying the soaking conditions of the crystal system of the target protein. At the end of the soaking period, the cryo-protectant is added (if required), the crystals are fished, cryo-cooled, and stored at Diamond until automated data collection takes place.

Data collection

Samples are stored and loaded onto the beamline when the next data collection slot becomes available. For further details, see our UDC access.

Contract research

Our Contract Research service includes transferring your project to Diamond, establishing the soaking parameters of the crystals, performing compound soaks, data collection and data analysis. Once you send us the sample(s), our highly qualified and experienced staff will design and perform the experiment for you. Diffraction data is then collected and at that point you can either take your fragment screen data to analyse in-house or engage our team of scientists to run the appropriate data analysis for you and send you a clear and accessible report with the results.

There's no need for you to fully understand how a synchrotron works, or even the finer details of the technique, we'll take care of that.

Flexible access

Unattended Data Collection (UDC)

How it works

UDC offers a well-established, fast, and flexible way to automate data collection. This approach is the most efficient and cost-effective option for all standard MX experiments using 'reasonable quality' macromolecular crystals, and is the preferred option for most of our industrial users.

Related techniques

Macromolecular Crystallography (MX)

Crystallisation Facilities

Cryo-Electron Microscopy at eBIC for Industry

Protein SAXS (bioSAXS)

Cryo-soft X-ray tomography (cryo-SXT)