The New Macromolecular Femtosecond Crystallography (MFX) Instrument at LCLS

Abstract

Macromolecular X-ray crystallography has developed, since its first use over 50 years ago to solve the structure of myoglobin, into a widely used method with broad impact in biological sciences and in society. It is today the primary technique used to obtain structural information on biomolecules that can shed light on their function and this information is often used in biomedical applications such as drug design. As this article is written, the Protein Data Bank [1] has just reached the milestone of 100,000 deposited X-ray structures, with a continuing trend for an ever-increasing number of structures every year. The primary contribution to this success and the increasing number of X-ray structures is the broad availability of synchrotron radiation sources with many dedicated beamlines around the world providing rapid and efficient data collection along with standard data analysis tools capable of fast data interpretation.

Acknowledgements

Funding for the MFX beamline construction was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research via the SLAC Mesoscale Integrated Biology Pilot Project. Further funding was provided by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract no. DE-AC02-76SF00515. The initial funding for the MFX endstation was provided by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. The SSRL Structural Molecular Biology Program is supported by the DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research, and by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (including P41GM103393). The contents of this publication are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIGMS or NIH.