Scientists from the WIS visited the CMS

07. 07. 2016

On July 6, 2016, two scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) visited the BIOCEV. Dr. Orly Dym and Prof. Joel Sussman were interested in the D8 Venture diffractometer with its unique combination of high-flux liquid Gallium anode X-ray source, Photon II detector and the ISX plate for in-situ diffraction tests and data collection. All instruments are part of the BIOCEV´s Core Facility – Centre of Molecular Structure (CMS), operated by the Institute of Biotechnology CAS.

Both Israeli scientists wanted to see the mentioned instruments operating in a "real laboratory" environment and lay their hands on them. They were able to check for themselves the use of the ISX stage in order to check the diffraction quality of crystals sitting in their crystallisation plate. Afterwards, they used a tiny test crystals (hen egg white lysozyme, of dimensions ca 100*20*20 micrometres) for a successful X-ray diffraction data collection experiment. The strategy expected redundancy is 2, and a 1.9 angstrom resolution data set was collected in a total of two hours machine time.

"This successful visit is a good example of the BIOCEV's international cooperation. In this case, a collaboration between the two Instruct groups", said Pavel Martásek, BIOCEV Director.

"We are thankful for an extraordinarily useful visit to BIOCEV. We were both very impressed with the Bruker D8 Venture. We also greatly appreciate superb quality of X-ray data we were able to collect on a test crystal of only about 100x20 microns", said Joel Sussman.