SAXFELS

We have earlier developed a prototype mass-spectrometry and ion-mobility separation delivery system for injection of oriented biomolecules.

The purpose of this project is to integrate the existing prototype to the open port at the SXP instrument at the European XFEL, to enable gas phase SAXS - SAXFELS. Structural biology has been of utmost importance for basic and applied life sciences.

New gas-phase techniques that circumvent certain limitations of solid- and solution-phase techniques by operating at, or near, the individual molecule level.

Our sample delivery system will allow for transfer of selected subpopulations from a protein solution to the X-ray beam for diffraction studies.

We will enable gas-phase SAXS experiments, with orientation control that deepens the structural information contained in the diffraction patterns. The setup can potentially be installed at many beamlines with relevance to the RÅC call.

Over four years, this project brings together scientists from Germany and Sweden in different fields, to develop a new technique with the potential to change the path of gas-phase structural biology.

This SAXFELS beamline will be initially unique to European XFEL and benefit the scientific community in general, and in the long term society at large by applying it to heterogenous viral proteins to pave the way for future investigations of emerging viruses like SARS-CoV-2.