FIBER WAX COMMISSIONING

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. An activity that has intensified in the last year is the development of WAXS Fiber Crystallography capabilities driven by collaborations with the Stubbs group (Vanderbilt University) and Orgel group (formally Rosalind Franklin University, now at IIT). The benefit of undulator radiation for this kind of study is the ability to collimate it to relatively small beam sizes at the sample (60 x 60 ¿m2) to illuminate small ordered domains in samples while having low enough divergence to resolve fine detail in the patterns. In order to perform these experiments, we have needed to cannibalize various components from the SAXS setup and use flight tubes borrowed from the Stubbs group to assemble a working instrument. We now have the knowledge needed to design a dedicated setup to be built in next funding period. In addition to having a dedicated setup with purpose built components, needed enhancements have been identified: high-resolution real-time sample alignment optics, sample goniometry and cryogenic capabilities. In addition, it has been found that there is a need to perform Biosaftey 2 or 3 experiments. BSL2 experiments have been run at BioCAT before, but are procedurally non-trivial to execute and BSL3 experiments are not possible at 18ID at all. However, we have recently successfully demonstrated the feasibility of performing certain less technically demanding fiber diffraction experiments at BioCARS 14 BM-C. Present use is about 4 days per run. We have come to an agreement with BioCARS, also a NCRR Biotechnology Research Resource, to support his activity in the future.