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 variable between 20 x 5, 50 x 50 and 100 x 100 μm2 at the sample position with a photon flux above 1013 ph/s at 400 mA ring current. Using aperture overfilling it is possible to obtain a minimum size of 5 x 5 μm2 beam at the sample position. The operational energy range of the beamline is 6–24 keV; this extensive energy tunability makes 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 are also supported at BioMAX.
| Available for | Technique description |
| General Users | Conventional rotation data collection (fixed point or helical) 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. Interleaved data collection. |
| 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. |
| Commissioning Users | Automated sample mounting and dismounting of samples in capillaries. Please contact beamline manager. |
| See also BioMAX User Information. |
