Remote data collection, made possible by the use of a sample automounter such as the BAM-2 located at F1 and remote desktop software, is a growing trend at MacCHESS. Research groups regularly ship in their samples from as far away as Texas, and then operate the beamline over an Internet connection to the MacCHESS F1 data collection workstation.

From the start, RAW was designed specifically with novice users in mind: when scientists arrive at the beamline, they need something fast and easy to learn in the very limited time available … often late at night. The program was literally designed by looking over the shoulders of beamline users as they collected data. But rather than simply create an automated data processing pipeline, we opted to give people the power to fully process data on their own computers at home, if they choose.

“Most scientists focus on a very specific area, but I do many different things,” says Sol Gruner, Physics. “I’m a research mutt. Mainly, I develop tools to attack scientific problems people haven’t looked at yet, largely because the tools needed to solve those problems haven’t existed.”

At a later stage, 3-nucleotide RNA sequences are translated into protein according to the genetic code.

Integral membrane proteins, or IMPs, are a major class of proteins that play crucial roles in many cellular processes, including the catalysis of disulfide bonds, which are essential for the function and stability of many proteins such as antibodies, which have significant therapeutic potential.

But IMPs are intrinsically hydrophobic and thus have low solubility in watery environments. Their natural environment is within the lipid bilayer membrane of a cell, which makes it difficult to study their structure and function.