Student Placement on I23:
Project title: In situ monitoring of the temperature stability of a novel protein sample holder for the long wavelength beamline I23 at Diamond light Source.
Diamond Light Source is a medium-energy synchrotron, accelerating electrons to 3GeV in order to exploit the high brilliance of light generated over a wide spectral range (from Infrared through to UV-VIS and in particular soft and hard X-rays). It generates extremely bright X-rays for a wide variety of experiments, ranging from crystallography and nanoscience to engineering and archaeology. Macromolecular crystallography (MX) now depends crucially on the use of synchrotron radiation to elucidate ever more complex macromolecular structures. The success of the technique is aptly illustrated with the recent spate of Nobel prizes in chemistry which have all relied on the use of synchrotron radiation (2009, 2006 and 2003 for the elucidation of the structures of the Ribosome, understanding the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription and potassium channels, respectively). I23 is a new beamline in construction at Diamond which will provide a dedicated facility to exploit, for the first time in macromolecular crystallography, lower energy X-rays to aid structural biologists tackle even more complex eukaryotic macromolecular assemblies and complexes. To enable the collection of data with X-rays in this energy regime, the I23 experimental endstation will operate in vacuum and thus a range of new developments are currently being designed to allow experimentalists to use the facility effectively.
As part of these developments a new sample holder assembly allowing cooling of protein crystals is being developed. Acquisition of diffraction data from macromolecular crystals in a vacuum environment as well as the requirement to minimize the size of the sample holder assembly requires a new method for monitoring the temperature of sample. A promising non-contact optical method recently tested by the I23 team uses the variation of the luminescence decay time of scintillation materials with temperature.
The successful applicant will carry out systematic studies that constitute preparing different types of sample holder assemblies and their characterisation. The characterisation stage comprises the measurement of the decay time constant of the scintillation microcrystal attached to the holder assembly over the 10-150 K range that gives information about its temperature.
The project will be carried out partly at Diamond Light Source (50%) and partly in the laboratory of cryogenic detectors at the University of Oxford (50%) where the setup for experimental studies is located. The results of these measurements will be then analysed, interpreted and used for the design of the sample holder assembly which facilitates the most efficient cooling of a protein crystal sample. The obtained results will provide input for scientific publication for which the successful applicant will contribute at the final stage of the project.
Applying for the studentship: For further details on applying for the I23 studentship at Diamond, please visit our 'placements' page