Current status and future opportunities for serial crystallography at MAX IV Laboratory

Area of Science:

• Structural Biology
• Crystallography
• Biophysics

Background:

• Serial crystallography (SC) is a powerful technique for collecting diffraction data from microcrystals at room temperature.
• Advancements in sample delivery methods have enabled SC at X-ray free-electron lasers and synchrotron facilities.
• Synchrotron facilities offer greater beam time availability, making them attractive for serial synchrotron X-ray crystallography (SSX) experiments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the implementation and possibilities of performing SSX experiments at the BioMAX beamline, MAX IV Laboratory.
• To present case studies demonstrating successful SSX experiments at BioMAX.
• To discuss future perspectives for dedicated SSX beamlines.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a high-viscosity extrusion injector for room-temperature serial crystallography.
• Utilized two solid supports: silicon nitride membranes (Silson, UK) and XtalTool (Jena Bioscience, Germany).
• Collected diffraction data at the BioMAX beamline, MAX IV Laboratory.

Main Results:

• Successful room-temperature serial crystallography experiments were performed at BioMAX using the high-viscosity extrusion injector.
• Demonstrated the compatibility of both silicon nitride membranes and XtalTool supports for SSX at BioMAX.
• Provided valuable case studies for the SSX user program.

Conclusions:

• BioMAX at MAX IV Laboratory is a viable platform for performing serial synchrotron X-ray crystallography.
• The developed methods facilitate efficient data collection from microcrystals at room temperature.
• Future dedicated beamlines like MicroMAX will further enhance SSX capabilities.