Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, synchrotron beamlines were forced to limit user access. Performing routine measurements became a challenge. At the Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamline, new instrumentation and mail-in protocols have been developed to remove the access barrier to solution scattering measurements. Our efforts took advantage of existing instrumentation and coincided with the larger effort at NSLS-II to support remote measurements. Given the limited staff-user interaction for mail-in measurements, additional software tools have been developed to ensure data quality, to automate the adjustments in data processing, as users would otherwise rely on the experience of the beamline staff, and produce a summary of the initial assessments of the data. This report describes the details of these developments.
Highlights
We described the instrumentation and software at the Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamline of NSLS-II for automated biomolecular solution scattering data collection and processing (Yang et al, 2020)
We have described the instrumentation and software at the LiX beamline for supporting mail-in solution scattering measurements
We find this mode of beamline operation helpful in providing more flexibility to both users and beamline staff
Summary
We described the instrumentation and software at the LiX beamline of NSLS-II for automated biomolecular solution scattering data collection and processing (Yang et al, 2020). Mail-in access is available to all solution scattering users with approved beam time proposals. Users who routinely perform solution scattering measurements can obtain recurring access through Block Allocation Groups, whereas those who only need access occasionally can submit rapid access proposals that can be approved for beam time typically a few days after submission. The user submits a safety approval form (SAF) – as required for all experiments, but streamlined for routine solution scattering measurements – with the sample information attached. Beamline staff need to populate the sample storage unit with all available sample holders, and data collection and processing can proceed automatically. We describe the software tools for ensuring that the users receive high-quality data even though they do not participate in data collection
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