Small-Angle X-ray Scattering at High Brilliance European Synchrotrons for Biotechnology and Nanotechnology

A SAXIER Workshop in Grenoble, France
Monday, February 5, 2007

The one-day Workshop was attended by 46 registered participants (including 20 participants not affiliated with the SAXIER project). The aims of the Workshop were:

• to present the scope and goals of SAXIER to the potential Users;
• to obtain feedback from the User Community;
• to discuss the first results obtained and to find the optimal ways of continuation;
• to create a working group for better dissemination of results.

During the first part of the workshop, after introductory talk of D. Svergun and the presentation of EU Officer M. Douka, the SAXIER workpackages and first results were presented.

C. Riekel (ESRF) introduced the workpackages on integrated micro-SAXS and micro-Raman system. J. Pérez (Soleil) showed the progress achieved for online gel filtration HPLC system. The work on the cryoSAXS sample environment was outlined by M. Roessle (EMBL). The progress in developing microfluidic devices for SAXS was reported by H. Amenitsch (IBN/Elettra). G. Grossmann (SRS) presented the project on the use of electrospray and ion trapping for SAXS in the gas phase. An integrated computer system for automated data analysis was outlined by D. Svergun (EMBL).

The second part of the Workshop was devoted to talks of representatives of the User Community. B. Vestergaard (University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Copenhagen, Denmark) described a microfluidics SAXS sample holder for high-throughput screening of proteins. V. Brechot (AFMB-CNRS, Marseille, France) talked about structural studies on flexible and disordered proteins and also about time-resolved SAXS studies in solution. NanoGISAXS applications and their future perspectives for nanostructured soft materials were reviewed by S.V. Roth, (HASYLAB/DESY, Hamburg, Germany). E. Ferrari (National Institute for Matter Physiscs, Trieste, Italy) presented the use of laser tweezers together with SAXS.

After the lectures, a discussion took place to refine the SAXIER aims for better suiting the Users needs but also to establish better links between SAXIER and the User Community. All SAXIER workpackages were discussed, with the most active discussions in the areas of microfluidics and software development. The following points were specifically noted:

• It was proposed to established a forum on software development for SAXS, where questions can be discussed about the ATSAS programs use, new releases will be announced and requests for program amendments will be made.
• The issue of data formats was discussed. M. Malfois (Diamond) and J. Pérez (Soleil) informed that these synchrotrons plan to employ Nexus as the data standard. As alternatives, sasCIF and XML formats were presented. It was agreed that the local storage formats are less important as long as the SAS keywords are uniquely defined and the software possesses appropriate interface for reading the format.
• It was proposed to consider amending the Wikipedia content on SAXS, which appears to be rather brief at present.
• M. Roessle informed about the long-term proposal submitted to the ESRF Soft Condensed Matter committee seeking beamtime on high brilliance beamlines ID02 and ID13 for SAXIER-related projects.
• Microfluidics was the most discussed hardware item, because the advantages of miniaturization concerning sample volume and environment are of immediate interest to most users. It was found that close communication between the groups working on microfluidics is essential. A working group was established chaired by H. Amenitsch and consisting of SAXIER representatives (C. Riekel, M. Roessle) and the members of the User Community developing a microfluidic analysis system (B. Vestergaard and L. Arleth, Copenhagen, Denmark). C. Riekel also proposed to contact other groups working in this field, which was found important by the workshop participants.

Full list of speakers + the presentations in PDF format »