DEVELOPMENT OF MAIL-IN CRYSTALLOGRAPHY

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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. Objectives  The R&D focus of this is to develop and implement procedures for very fast turn around on projects submitted by users. Because the Mail-in clients that this program provides a medium for rapid iteration between crystal growth and data collection, we work to make this process more convenient. The ancillary objective is to exploit the experiences of the local PXRR scientific staff who do this work to drive the development of software, methods, and hardware at the beamlines, benefitting all users. Results  During this year we published a major paper on our Mail-in program. Also, since our last report, Howard Robinson, Alexei Soares, and Annie H¿roux participated actively in this program. During that period, from Jan 2006 to March 2007, 45 PDB depositions have been made, which resulted in 25 publications, of which 20 had one of our scientists as a co-author (see Figure 5). Work during this year represents projects pursued by 90 groups; the majority of these groups sent projects more than twice in the year. The Mail-in scientists mounted around 1600 crystals, which corresponds to 20% of all the data collected at the beamlines during that period, for a grand total of 262,000 images. Approximately 250 of these crystals were mounted and dismounted by one of our automounter robots. We estimated the cumulative time spent at the beamlines collecting and processing the data, and off the beamlines (producing maps, sending the data), to be about a full FTE since we spend about 20 hours per project and we have about 90 active projects. The Mail-in program is a significant part of our effort. Plans  The burst of effort to create the Mail-in program is essentially over  it has a life of its own and would grow if we let it. Now the R&D effort focuses on firstly improving the efficiency of the local staff, and secondly on stimulating the clients to think differently and do their work in different ways, enhanced by the availability of our help. In the first case we work continually to improve the usefulness of the automounters and the experimental software. Since to a large extent we are the people doing the R&D, the communication loop is really small. In the second case, we see that the frequency of clients who send in just a few crystals for screening or data collection is high; these folks believe that we are their home source. This is good. Also there are occasions where clients will send in well over 50 crystals in automounter pucks for screening or data collection. This is remarkably good use of their, and our, time and effort. Significance  This mode of operation has proven to be highly successful and is being implemented at almost all the other SR facilities doing macromolecular crystallography in the world. The crystallography community has warmed to the concept of having local staff as collaborators, as the number of co-authorships highlights. This not only increases the rate at which they can obtain data but also boosts their ability to pursue several projects that were stalled or in a very early stage. This program enables our staff to be active, productive, and up to date with the constantly evolving field of crystallography, especially the software component. This links our staff to firm intellectual contacts with the PX user community. Howard Robinson, Alexei S. Soares, Michael Becker, Robert Sweet and Annie H¿roux. (2006) Mail-in crystallography program at Brookhaven National Laboratorys National Synchrotron Light Source. Acta Cryst. D62, 13361339.