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The macromolecular crystallography beamlines at BESSY II of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin: Current status and perspectives

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Abstract

For a little over a decade now, the Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) group at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has been operating three state-of-the-art synchrotron beamlines for MX at the BESSY II storage ring in Berlin. The three HZB-MX beamlines, BL14.1, BL14.2 and BL14.3, serve a stable and growing user community of currently more than 100 independent research groups from Berlin, Germany and Europe. Every year, the beamlines provide close to 200 days of MX-beamtime. Over time, the HZB-MX beamlines and endstations, in particular BL14.1, have been continually developed and upgraded and, since 2010, they operate as the most productive MX beamlines in Germany. The environment of the beamlines includes various ancillary equipment as well as additional facilities, such as office space adjacent to the beamlines, a sample preparation laboratory, a safety level 1 biology laboratory (HZB-MX BioLab) and all necessary computing resources. In this paper, the current status of the beamlines as well as the ongoing developments are described.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Institute for Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Macromolecular Crystallography (HZB-MX), Albert-Einstein-Str. 15, D-12489, Berlin, Germany

    Uwe Mueller, Michael Hellmig, Franziska U. Huschmann, Alexandra Kastner, Martin Röwer, Karine Sparta, Michael Steffien, Monika Ühlein & Manfred S. Weiss

  2. Phillipps-Universität Marburg, Institut für Pharmazeutische Chemie, Marbacher Weg 6, D-35032, Marburg, Germany

    Franziska U. Huschmann

  3. AG Strukturbiologie/Biochemie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, D-10099, Berlin, Germany

    Piotr Wilk

  4. Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10, D-13125, Berlin, Germany

    Piotr Malecki

  5. AG Strukturbiologie, Universität Salzburg, Billrothstrasse 11, 5020, Salzburg, Austria

    Sandra Pühringer

  6. Fachbereich Biologie, Chemie, Pharmazie, Institut für Chemie und Biochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustr. 6, D-14195, Berlin, Germany

    Ronald Förster

Authors
  1. Uwe Mueller
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  2. Ronald Förster
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  3. Michael Hellmig
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  4. Franziska U. Huschmann
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  5. Alexandra Kastner
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  6. Piotr Malecki
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  7. Sandra Pühringer
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  8. Martin Röwer
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  9. Karine Sparta
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  10. Michael Steffien
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  11. Monika Ühlein
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  12. Piotr Wilk
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  13. Manfred S. Weiss
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uwe Mueller.

Additional information

Contribution to the Focus Point on “Status of third-generation synchrotron crystallography beamlines: An overview” edited by Gaston Garcia.

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Mueller, U., Förster, R., Hellmig, M. et al. The macromolecular crystallography beamlines at BESSY II of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin: Current status and perspectives. Eur. Phys. J. Plus 130, 141 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15141-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15141-2

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