The G1 beamline control area has been renovated and reorganized to make more efficient use of space and to accommodate larger groups. The G-line chem room, which has a dedicated BioSAXS sample preparation area, now has high-quality ultrapure water on tap and all the equipment you need to prepare a wide variety of buffers.
Inline Size Exclusion Chromatography at the beamline is being commissioned during the Spring 2014 run and is expected to be available to select first-time users. Those interested in trying this new technology should contact me (Richard Gillilan) in advance to discuss their project.
CHESS now has a -85C freezer! There is increasing evidence that it is better to ship BioSAXS samples frozen on dry ice. If samples are flash cooled immediately after preparation, freezing prevents degradation during shipment and storage. While the jury is still out on frozen shipment, you now have the option at MacCHESS!
Static and Dynamic Light Scattering: we have begun testing a complete MALS/DLS/RI setup from Wyatt for our AKTA size exclusion system. This will ultimately provide powerful complementary data for BioSAXS runs that will be essential in diagnosing aggregation problems and resolving ambiguities. As with the inline SEC system, users who anticipate needing this instrumentation should contact me in advance.
Check out the website for our recent ACA BioSAS Training Workshop. The site contains 19 complete presentations on BioSAXS/SANS, software download and installation instructions, tutorial datasets, links to online processing tools, and more: http://meetings.chess.cornell.edu/ACABioSAS/index.html