I02's final Industrial user

This week I02 closed its doors to its final Industrial User. Following the last Industrial beamtime shift, I02 will undergo a transformation and will reopen in late 2016 in its new format; as a Versatile Macromolecular X-tallography in-situ (VMXi) beamline. It will be an entirely automated facility for the characterisation of, and data collection directly from, crystallisation experiments in situ.

VMXi will be the first beamline of its kind solely dedicated to data collection directly from crystallisation experiments in situ i.e. from crystals remaining in their crystallisation media, rather than being transferred to a sample holder and exposed to X-rays under cryogenic conditions. The beamline will have facilities to store thousands of user crystallisation experiments and will feature automated transfer between sample storage and the beamline, as well as highly automated data collection and analysis. It will enable users to monitor their crystallisation experiments remotely and request X-ray analysis without the need for their direct participation in the X-ray experiment. This approach will allow for the study of crystals as they emerge and for the collection of data from all crystals, including those that are too fragile to handle and those that cannot be cryo-cooled.

Thomas Sorenson, principal beamline scientist for beamline I02 comments:

"Over the years I02 has generated so many great structures. Most notably, the 2010 structure from Peter Cherepanov’s group on Retroviral intasome assembly and inhibition of DNA strand transfer (DOI: 10.1038/nature08784). This was great work and an example where structural insight helped explain a fundamental biological mechanism. More recently, I02 has been part of producing ground breaking scientific results illustrated nicely by the structures published a month ago from Dave Stuart’s group revealing how Toremifene interacts with and destabilises the Ebola virus glycoprotein (DOI: 10.1038/nature18615). Closing I02 down is not the end – it is the beginning. We will be back online at the end of the year with the new VMXi beamline. VMXi is a completely new type of beamline where we will collect data straight from crystallisation trial on this 100% automatically operated beamline."

So who gets the honour of being I02’s final Industrial Client? Well, that accolade goes to local company Crysalin.

Crysalin, whose offices are based in Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, was founded in June 2007 to research and develop a protein lattice technology that originated in 2002 in the Oxford University Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics.

With the aim of facilitating the structural characterisation of biological macromolecules, Crysalin has produced a novel type of crystalline material by means of the genetic fusion of oligomeric proteins of appropriate symmetry. Crysalin lattices are formed from a combination of high symmetry protein oligomers. They employ the intrinsic symmetry of these oligomeric proteins to generate lattices via genetic fusion to other proteins with appropriately matched symmetry and coordination properties.

: Crysalin assembly principles

These engineered lattices have properties that will make them suitable as frameworks for the spatially oriented attachment of guest macromolecules. Crysalin’s plan is to use these lattices in X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy (EM) experiments and thereby to enable rapid and automated structure determination of macromolecules and their complexes with macromolecular partners and with small molecule co-factors, substrates and drugs. In this setting, “crysalins” possess advantageous properties that may allow otherwise challenging protein structures to be solved with the throughput that is needed to support crystallographic fragment screening, and active structure based drug design projects.

: Dr Ailsa Powell, Scientist at Crysalin placing their final samples on I02

Joint founder, Director and VP of Research Dr John Sinclair comments

“Since 2011, Crysalin have been regular visitors from our current base in Upper Heyford to I02 and the other MX beamlines at Diamond. During this period, we have very much appreciated the evolution of the facilities: both the incremental improvements in software and the substantial hardware upgrades, particularly in the context of sample handling and data collection. In exploiting these developments, we have always been ably supported by both beamline scientists and the Diamond industrial liaison team. We will therefore be excited to see I02 in its new incarnation as VMXi and to explore the opportunities it will open up in combination with our somewhat atypical crystal systems.”

Crysalin has received investment from IP Group plc, Longwall Venture Partners LLP (Oxford Technology ECF fund), SandAire, Oxford Spinout Equity Management, Ora ( Guernsey ) Ltd, and the Oxford University Challenge Seed Fund (UCSF).

If you would like to find out more about VMXi and its industrial applications, please contact the Diamond Industrial Liaison Group on +44 (0)1235 778797, [email protected] or you can follow us on Twitter @DiamondILO or LinkedIn.

For more details about Crysalin, please visit their webpages at www.crysalin.com.

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I02's final Industrial user