Resources

Diamond has a wide-range of world-class resources to support your BioSAXS experiment.

B21: a dedicated solution state SAXS beamline
Diamond has a dedicated solution state Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) beamline that can accommodate a wide variety of aqueous-based and some limited organic solvent-based samples. In order to achieve high sample through put, B21 is equipped with a highly automated BIOSAXS robot for small volume liquid handling from a 96 well plate.

BioSAXS Robot: This allows scientists to access high-throughput solution scattering (5 mins per sample). The robot uses 96 well plates to hold samples - we can supply these and you may also use PCR strips if required. These samples are then delivered by the robot to a fixed glass capilliary inside the exposure unit which is held under vacuum to reduce background. The samples can be refrigerated while awaiting data collection if necessary.

Integration of SEC-SAXS: Diamond has developed a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) sample environment for solution scattering (SEC-SAXS) that couples the use of established biological separation techniques to the scattering experiment itself.  This helps to remove any impurities or protein aggregation and improve the quality of the scattering curves.

BioSAXS Lab: A dedicated BioSAXS Lab is provided to meet all of your sample preparation needs.  We can store your samples under appropriate conditions (fridge, -18°C freezer and -80°C freezer) ahead of your experiment and conduct HPLC to separate the sample components and ensure high quality data.

Software: The Scatter software, developed in part at Diamond, is available for download. This software can be used for a range of analysis options and is freely available for use by industrial users. The latest version is also included in each B21 experiment folder. Please note that you must obtain a licence for ATSAS to use some additional add-ons.