title: Facilities for macromolecular crystallography at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin.
abstract: Three macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamlines at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) are available for the regional, national and international structural biology user community. The state-of-the-art synchrotron beamlines for MX BL14.1, BL14.2 and BL14.3 are located within the low-β section of the BESSY II electron storage ring. All beamlines are fed from a superconducting 7 T wavelength-shifter insertion device. BL14.1 and BL14.2 are energy tunable in the range 5-16 keV, while BL14.3 is a fixed-energy side station operated at 13.8 keV. All three beamlines are equipped with CCD detectors. BL14.1 and BL14.2 are in regular user operation providing about 200 beam days per year and about 600 user shifts to approximately 50 research groups across Europe. BL14.3 has initially been used as a test facility and was brought into regular user mode operation during the year 2010. BL14.1 has recently been upgraded with a microdiffractometer including a mini-κ goniometer and an automated sample changer. Additional user facilities include office space adjacent to the beamlines, a sample preparation laboratory, a biology laboratory (safety level 1) and high-end computing resources. In this article the instrumentation of the beamlines is described, and a summary of the experimental possibilities of the beamlines and the provided ancillary equipment for the user community is given.
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Institute for Soft Matter and Functional Materials, Macromolecular Crystallography, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 15, D-12489 Berlin, Germany. umue@helmholtz-berlin.de
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Darowski
authors.forename: Martin R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Förster
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hellmig
authors.forename: Karthik S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Paithankar
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pühringer
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Steffien
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zocher
authors.forename: Manfred S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D057205:Automation, Laboratory; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006867:Hydrolases / Q000737:chemistry; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry*; D051379:Mice; D055355:Opsins / Q000737:chemistry; D009961:Orosomucoid / Q000737:chemistry; D017356:Synchrotrons / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D055355:Opsins; D009961:Orosomucoid; D006867:Hydrolases