We will hold a "First Science at the ABBIX Beamlines" meeting on Tuesday -
Wednesday, April 21-22, 2015, pertaining to the National Institutes of
Health (NIH)-sponsored "Advanced Beamlines for Biological Investigations
with X-rays" (ABBIX) Project. These three state-of-the-art beamlines are
now under construction at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS)-II
facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Two of the beamlines are
for macromolecular crystallography (MX), and the third is for life
sciences applications of x-ray scattering.
Visit this web site for further information and registration materials:
http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/?w=ABBIXApr2015
Briefly, the MX beamline called FMX - Frontier MX - is optimized to
address microbeam applications, and the other called AMX - Highly
Automated MX - is optimized for highly automated throughput. The
scattering beamline called LIX - High Brightness X-Ray Scattering for
Life Sciences - will offer multiple modes of study. The MX beamlines view
canted undulator sources, and the scattering beamline views a single
undulator, providing world-leading brightness.
Current plans are to conclude construction by the end of 2015 and start
commissioning then. During the commissioning period, opportunities will
arise to perform early experiments before the general user programs of the
beamlines commence in 2016, and it is the upcoming meeting's purpose to
explore and discuss scientific areas and opportunities on which early
operation of the beamlines could capitalize.
Note: Registration is required. There is no registration fee. Visit this
site to register: http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/?w=ABBIXApr2015
Those who registered for the original meeting planned for January must
re-register for the new occurrence in April. Contributed presentations
describing experiments that exploit the capabilities of the ABBIX
beamlines will be selected from submitted abstracts.
The meeting will consist of both plenary and parallel sessions. The
plenary session will begin with presentations on science topics in
research fields that the beamlines are designed to address, followed by
facility presentations to update the community about the early scientific
capabilities at the suite of ABBIX beamlines and, in addition, of the Life
Science and Biomedical Technology Research Resource (LSBR), sponsored by
the NIH and the Department of Energy Office of Biological and
Environmental Research (DOE BER).
Two parallel sessions on Tuesday afternoon will focus on MX and x-ray
scattering, consisting mainly of presentations that will address specific
opportunities in these areas. These will be followed by two more parallel
sessions on Wednesday morning, also focusing on MX and x-ray scattering,
which will include contributions. If you wish to give a contributed
presentation during one of the parallel sessions, please submit an
abstract here:
http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/abstracts/default.aspx?w=ABBIXApr2015
The parallel sessions are designed to provide forums to facilitate more
detailed discussions about potential first experiments at specific
beamlines and the formation of the experiment teams. Specifically, each
parallel session group will be charged to accomplish these goals:
1. Identify key research projects and the associated first experiments
that may be performed at the suite of ABBIX beamlines, emphasizing
those projects that will take advantage of NSLS-II properties and ABBIX
beamline capabilities.
2. Facilitate the formation of research teams to generate first
experiment proposals for submission.
3. Identify key additional team members in such areas as theory and
analysis, ancillary measurements, and specimen preparation, needed to
achieve the research goals.
Confirmed invited speakers: Karen Allen (Boston Univ), Martin Caffrey
(Trinity College Dublin), Seth Darst (Rockefeller Univ), Richard Gillilan
(Cornell Univ), Wayne Hendrickson (Columbia Univ), AndrHoelz (California
Inst Tech), Huey Huang (Rice Univ), Shenping Liu (Pfizer), Lee Makowski
(Northeastern Univ), David Ostrov (Univ of Florida), Rebecca Page (Brown
Univ), Anna Marie Pyle (Yale Univ), Christian Riekel (ESRF), Thomas
Schneider (EMBL-Hamburg), John Tainer (Scripps Research Inst).
We would like two outcomes from this meeting: (a) a concise meeting report
outlining how ABBIX beamlines will help to address outstanding problems in
life sciences, and (b) a list of potential first experiments along with
the corresponding research teams. For more information on the meeting,
please contact Sonya Kiss, at skiss from bnl.gov.
Note: Registration deadline is Tuesday, April 14, 2015.
Organizers:
Lonny Berman
ABBIX Project Manager
National Synchrotron Light Source II
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Sean McSweeney
Structural Biology Program Manager
Photon Sciences Division Deputy Director
National Synchrotron Light Source II
