Abstract
The ESRF has worked with, and provided services for, the pharmaceutical industry since the construction of its first protein crystallography beamline in the mid-1990s. In more recent times, industrial clients have benefited from a portfolio of beamlines which offer a wide range of functionality and beam characteristics, including tunability, microfocus and micro-aperture. Included in this portfolio is a small-angle X-ray scattering beamline dedicated to the study of biological molecules in solution. The high demands on throughput and efficiency made by the ESRF's industrial clients have been a major driving force in the evolution of the ESRF's macromolecular crystallography resources, which now include remote access, the automation of crystal screening and data collection, and a beamline database allowing sample tracking, experiment reporting and real-time at-a-distance monitoring of experiments. This paper describes the key features of the functionality put in place on the ESRF structural biology beamlines and outlines the major advantages of the interaction of the ESRF with the pharmaceutical industry.
Highlights
Industrial users have accessed the facilities available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for a wide range of experiments requiring the use of synchrotron radiation (SR) since the start of user operation in 1994
This paper describes the impetus given to the automation of the ESRF MX beamlines as a result of proprietary research and summarizes the key features of the developments put in place at the ESRF from which all users of the beamlines have benefited
The need, alluded to above, of industrial clients of the ESRF’s MX beamlines for robust sample tracking and experiment reporting was one of the driving forces which led to the development and deployment at the ESRF in 2001 of PXWeb, a prototype laboratory information management system (LIMS) combining sample tracking and experiment reporting during synchrotron-based MX experiments (Arzt et al, 2005)
Summary
Industrial users have accessed the facilities available at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) for a wide range of experiments requiring the use of synchrotron radiation (SR) since the start of user operation in 1994. Experiences with industrial researchers have helped in the development of a reliable robotic sample changer (Cipriani et al, 2006), an automatic data-processing pipeline (Monaco et al, 2012), remote-access experiments (Gabadinho et al, 2010) and a laboratory information management system (LIMS), ISPyB (Beteva et al, 2006; Delageniere et al, 2011). The latter combines the sample tracking and experiment reporting essential for the running of an efficient data-collection service for proprietary clients. This paper describes the impetus given to the automation of the ESRF MX beamlines as a result of proprietary research and summarizes the key features of the developments put in place at the ESRF from which all users of the beamlines have benefited
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