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Dr Wagner explained why this structure was particularly challenging to solve: “The quality of protein crystals varied significantly from crystal to crystal and the best diffraction data obtained yielded only moderate resolution. In combination with the low sulphur content tuning the wavelength into the long-wavelength range allowed us to increase the phasing information and solve this challenging structure.”
Prof Jim Naismith, Professor of Chemical Biology, led the research. He said: “Buoyed by promising initial results the group worked late into the night, adopting different strategies in an attempt to maximise the resolution of the data set. The following morning was much the same, but unfortunately during the visit, we were unable to collect a dataset of sufficient resolution to solve the structure - although this was not for lack of trying”.However the I23 team pressed on in trying to unpick the structure. And after a great deal of effort, they were successful.“Thanks to the dedication of the staff at I23 we have now solved a structure we have been trying to solve for over two years”, said Prof Naismith.
Dr Wagner added: “This is a major milestone for the long-wavelength MX Beamline I23. After several years of designing and commissioning, overcoming of technical hurdles, this finally shows the huge potential of this unique facility. Further improvements over the next months will be needed towards routine user experiments, but this first successful structure determination indicates that this novel Beamline will be a key asset in Diamond, helping users to tackle very difficult protein structures."
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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