NECAT Beamline

The Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) facility at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory is managed by Cornell University and consists of seven member institutions:

  • Columbia University
  • Cornell University
  • Harvard University
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Rockefeller University
  • Yale University.

    • Primary funding for this project comes from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Additional financial support for NE-CAT comes from the member institutions.

    Status of NE-CAT Sector 24 Activities

     

    March 2008 

     

    The month of March and the entire 2008-1 APS run cycle have been a very productive period for NE- CAT users. Both undulator beamlines are heavily booked and operating very reliably- with no significant down times due to beamline malfunctions. We now project that both beamlines will end 2008-1 with utilization factors of greater than 80%.

     

    Microdiffraction

    The acquisition of the MD2 microdiffractometer on 24-ID-E has proved to be a major success, providing new opportunities for users, particularly with very small crystals. The MD2 has been such a success that we are acquiring another MD2 microdiffractometer for the other undulator beamline 24-ID-C. The new MD2 will be identical to the present MD2 but will have a Kappa installed. The providers, ACCEL/Maatel, have provided us with an estimated delivery date of October 2008.

     

    New Crystal Illumination System

    The advent of the MD2 has caused us a problem. Before users had experience with the sample imaging system of the MD2, NE- CAT users praised the crystal visualization system of the system in use for several years at 24-ID-C. However, now viewing the MD2 visualization system, more and more users are recommending a similar quality system be installed for 24-ID-C. Prior to delivery of the second MD2, which would address this recommendation, we have installed and are testing a new crystal illumination system for 24-ID-C. The new illumination system consists of a LED light source combined with an opal diffuser, backlighting the sample and in line with the long-distance microscope. Early user experience with this new illumination system is very positive, with the crystals more easily seen.

     

    Sample Placement Robotics System

    Modifications to the ALS sample placement robotic system have now been finished and use of the robot is being made available to users. Some of the modifications made included elimination of the few remaining sources of icing and installation of a gravity feed liquid nitrogen filling system for the sample Dewar. The first user group to use the robot reported that during the course of their experiments involving the mounting and dismounting of more than 100 crystals only one crystal did not mount correctly. The source of this problem is known and will be eliminated. A photograph of the sample placement robotics system is shown below.

     

    NE- CAT Organized Workshop

    NE- CAT is organizing a workshop in conjunction with the APS User Week 2008. Workshop WK04 titled “Software for Challenging Cases in Macromolecular Crystallography” will be chaired by Igor Kourinov and Frank Murphy of our staff and will be held all day on Tuesday, May 6, 2008. The agenda is posed on:

    http://www.aps.anl.gov/Users/Meeting/2008/Workshops/wk04_MXsoftware.php

     

     

     

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