Consortium for operation of a protein crystallographic synchrotron beamline

同步加速器设施提供了一种X射线辐射源，它与传统X射线源相比，具有高度的准直性和更大的通量。这些因素给结构生物学家带来了极大的好处，使得用X射线衍射法阐明具有生物、医学和工业重要意义的大分子成为可能。此外，多波长异常衍射(MAD)技术的发展要求使用同步辐射，通过显著减少解算蛋白质结构所需的时间，使大分子结构测定发生了革命性的变化。因此，蛋白质结晶学家对使用同步加速器设备的需求在过去几年里急剧增加也就不足为奇了。鉴于这一趋势，使用同步加速器设施已成为一种宝贵的商品。研究需要同步辐射的加拿大科学家一直处于相当困难的境地，因为加拿大直到最近才拥有同步辐射设施。随着加拿大光源(CLS)在2006年的某个时候开放，这种情况正在改变，预计第一条蛋白质晶体光束线将在2007-2008年全面投入使用。然而，在此之前，基于加拿大同步加速器的蛋白质结晶学研究仍必须在加拿大以外的地方进行。多用户访问赠款申请旨在为加拿大蛋白质结晶学家联盟提供资金，以访问同步加速器设施。为了确保继续使用，我们将继续参与位于纽约厄普顿的国家同步加速器光源布鲁克海文国家实验室的蛋白质结晶学光束线的运营，直到CLS发展出足以满足加拿大结晶学家需求的数据收集能力。

Synchrotron facilities provide a source of X-ray radiation that is both highly collimated and of much greater flux than can be attained on conventional X-ray sources. These factors have greatly benefited structural biologist, enabling the elucidation of large biologically, medically and industrially important macromolecules by X-ray diffraction methods. In addition, the development of Multiwavelength Anomalous Diffraction (MAD) techniques, which demand the use of synchrotron radiation, have revolutionized macromolecular structure determinations by significantly reducing the time needed to solve a protein structure. Thus, it is not surprising that the demand for access to synchrotron facilities by protein crystallographers has dramatically increased over the last few years. Given this trend, access to synchrotron facilities has become a precious commodity. Canadian scientists whose research requires synchrotron radiation had been in a rather difficult situation since Canada did not have a synchrotron facility until recently. This situation is changing with the Canadian Light Source (CLS) opening sometime in 2006, and anticipated full operation of the first protein crystallography beamline foreseen in 2007-8. Until then, however, Canadian synchrotron-based protein crystallography research must still be conducted outside of Canada. The Multi-User Access grant application is intended to providing funding for a Canadian consortium of protein crystallographers to access synchrotron facilities. To ensure continued access, we would maintain our current participation in the operation of a protein crystallography beam line capable of performing MAD experiments at the National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratories in Upton, New York until data collection capacity sufficient to satisfy need of Canadian crystallographers is developed at CLS.