BioMAX is the first X-ray macromolecular crystallography beamline of MAX IV Laboratory. It has been in user operation since 2017. The design goal for BioMAX was to create a stable and reliable beamline that is user friendly. The beamline experiment set-up is highly automated, in terms of both sample handling hardware and data analysis, while also being able to accommodate multiple cutting edge experimental possibilities.
The X-ray beam focus is 20 x 5 μm2 at the sample position with a photon flux of 1013 ph/s at 300 mA ring current. The operational energy range of the beamline is 6–24 keV. Alternatively, using aperture overfilling it is possible to obtain a stable 5 x 5 μm2 beam at the sample position. Due to its extensive energy tunability, BioMAX is an ideal source for de novo phasing using the anomalous signal of heavy elements. Beam defocusing creates a practically parallel beam, which can be used to resolve extremely large unit cells > 1000 Å at high resolution. Due to its small beam cross-section and optional parallel beam, BioMAX is an optimal experimental set-up for X-ray crystallography using microcrystals and ultra-large unit cells. Synchrotron-based serial crystallography (SSX) experiments, using injector or fixed target sample delivery.
Available for | Technique description |
General Users | Conventional data collection at a wide range of energies and variable beam size. |
General Users | Automated sample mounting and dismounting from UniPucks, 29 puck positions in dewar. |
General Users | Sample temperature 100 K; room temperature with or without humidity control available for manual mounting only. |
General Users | SAD and MAD experiments. |
General Users | Automated data integration, scaling and merging. Offline remote access for manual data processsing. |
General Users | SX experiments using HVE-injector (High viscosity extrusion injector), fixed target scan using the MD3. Please contact beamline manager. |
General Users | Element identification by X-ray Fluorescence. Fast energy scans. |
General Users | Remote data collection. |
General Users | In-situ screening with different plate types. Please contact beamline manager. |
General Users | Fragment-based drug screening. Please contact beamline manager. |
See also BioMAX User Information. |