Integrated Technologies

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Abstract - Integrated Technologies Core The overall goal of the Integrated Technologies Core (ITC) is to provide coordinated access and cost-effective support for our facility – the Center for Biomolecular Structure (CBMS). The first role of the ITC within the CBMS is to enable technical and engineering support for two of the three scientific technical cores; these two cores are the ones that depend on hard-x-ray diffraction, two Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) beamlines: Frontier Microfocus Macromolecular Crystallography (FMX), and Highly Automated Macromolecular Crystallography (AMX), and scattering: Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX), in structural biological studies. Constructed predominantly with an award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), these three beamlines support structural biology and other disciplines, and the funding in this grant will support their continued operation. The third technical core, the Imaging core, serves five beamlines built and operated mostly by the Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences (BES), for which the life-science studies that we will support on these beamlines represent a minor component of their entire programs. Therefore, the maintenance and upgrade role that the ITC plays for the MX and Scattering Cores will be played by existing BES-sponsored technical staff for the Bioimaging Core. The second function of the ITC is to coordinate standards for hardware, software, controls, and networking and computing systems. It also assures resource sharing among all scientific technical cores in CBMS and supports efficient communication with the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) beamlines and the technical and engineering groups. We believe that by organizing our technical staff to function across the three beamlines we will make better use of our resources. We estimate that our collaboration saves personnel resources equivalent to two to three FTE. By pooling spare parts, and assuming equipment failures to be random, for three beamlines the reduction in investment in spares amounts to approximately 40%. This will allow us to provide backup coverage and extra support among the three, to be consistent in instrument design, and to make efficient use of accepted facilities-maintenance standards. Numerous resources within the ITC exist also in the rest of the NSLS-II; for us to share and exchange knowledge and apparatus will cross-fertilize opportunities for all of us and foster greater efficiency.