NCI X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) initiative

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Currently, two experiments are pending. 1). Investigating time-resolved process of ligand-triggered conformation change in riboswitch using XFEL. The beam time was awarded based on our competitive proposal in 2019, right before the pandemic shutdown. 2). nano-micron crystallization under the microgravity environment onboard of the International Space Station (ISS) under the collaboration with NASA. Our samples are already on board of ISS. We're waiting for the next window time where an astronaut can perform the experiment onboard of ISS and the samples are returned ground for the immediate data collection at LCLS. For the past five years, arranging this experiment has been proven to be extremely challenging because of high degree of uncertainty in sample return schedules and great difficulty in securing a XFEL beamtime to meet the sample returning schedule. The problem was exacerbated further by the pandemic related shutdown in the last year. Regardless, we will continue our effort till the experiment is eventually performed and completed successfully. In light of the pandemic related interruption, I have made a conscientious and strategic change in our program. Instead of solely relying on the XFEL, the resource that we have no control over and is highly susceptible to interruption, we were forced to adopt different technologies to carry out and fulfill our research goal of exploring RNA structural dynamics and conformational space.