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Learn Beamline Guides ALS 8.2.2

BEAMLINE GUIDE
ALS 8.2.2

The Advanced Light Source
Berkeley, CA
ACTOR Robot Automounter

The Berkeley Center for Structural Biology (BCSB) is a national user facility operating under the aegis of LBNL’s Physical Biosciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. An umbrella organization, the BCSB operates five protein crystallography beamlines at the Advanced Light Source (ALS). In June of 1998, BCSB staff welcomed the first research teams to Beamline 5.0.2; Beamline 5.0.1 came online in 1999, followed by Beamline 5.0.3 in 2000. Beamlines 8.2.1 and 8.2.2 began operation in 2003. Since inception the BCSB has represented an unusual partnership among industrial, academic, national laboratory, and non-profit researchers. These five beamlines have been uncommonly productive when considered across the metrics of publication record, number of solved structures, and scientific merit and significance of work.1

Automated Systems at 8.2.2:

Per BCSB: “The Automounter is an automated cryogenic crystal mounting system that is aimed at high-throughput macromolecular crystallography by increasing experimental efficiency and reliability. Automounters are available on beamlines 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, 8.2.1 and 8.2.2. Approximately 1-2 weeks before your scheduled beamline time you will be contacted by our administrative staff. At this time you need to indicate whether you are interested in using the automounter. All users must be trained on the automounter prior to use. Beamline staff will conduct training at the beginning of your scheduled time. Before you can use the automounter you will need to obtain your own set of pucks and puck tools.”2

Contacts

Marc Allaire

Brian Matthews

Other Links

Tools

We recommend the following tools for their compatibility and ease-of-use.

Recommended Accepted*
Puck Style Uni-Puck Uni-Puck, ALS,  ACTOR†
Mount/Loop Style MicroMounts™ & MicroLoops™ LD Any
Rod Length 18mm/SPINE 18mm/SPINE
Base Style B1A-Reusable B1A-Reusable, B1A
*Automounter – BCSB Wiki

†To purchase ACTOR pucks, please contact us.

Sample Preparation Kits

Convenient kits of compatible assemblies of MiTeGen recommended products

Beamline Sample Preparation Kits are available in 3 aperture size assortments based on your crystal sizes and include:

  • Assemblies of 100 Crystal Mounts, on 18 mm pins, available in the following assortment:
    • 20 x Dual-Thickness MicroLoops ™ LD  (5 each of 10, 20, 30 and 50 μm aperture sizes)
    • 40 x Dual-Thickness MicroMount ™ (10 each of 75, 100, 150 and 200 μm aperture sizes)
    • 20 x Dual-Thickness MicroLoops ™  (5 each of 300, 400, 500 and 600 μm aperture sizes)
    • 20 x MicroMeshes ™  (5 each of 10, 25, 50 and 25L μm aperture sizes)
  • Installed in 100 B5-R reusable bases or 100 regular bases
  • Packaged and stored in 5 MiTeGen base holders

Uni-puck Starter Kit 2 includes:

  • (7) Universal V-1 Pucks
  • (1) Double Puck Loading Dewar with Lid
  • (1) Puck Wand
  • (1) Puck Dewar Loading Tool
  • (1) Puck Separator Tools
  • (1) Shelved Puck Shipping Cane
  • (1) Bent Cryo-Tong
  • (1) Cryo Express Dry Shipper (CX100)
  • (1) Shipping case for CX100

*custom kits are available, contact MiTeGen with specific requests.

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