Macromolecular Crystallography
Unattended Data Collections
Unattended Data Collection (UDC) is a new mode of operation for the MX beamlines and can be used for fast and efficient data collection from 'reasonable-quality' macromolecular crystals whilst you do something more productive with your time. X-ray centring is used to align crystals to the X-ray beam and then data collections are performed based on user-provided diffraction plans.
Main Benefits of UDC
- Rapid scheduling
- No user input required during the beamtime - ship and forget until you get your results back
- Uses standardised data collection protocols which have been optimised for each Diamond beamline
How does UDC work?
- Ensure all samples have been approved in the proposal risk assessment in UAS.
- Decide on the method of screening samples.
- Decide which experiment kind is required.
- Create a shipment, enter sample information and diffraction plan in ISPyB.
- Shelved puck containers are mandatory for Unattended data collection.
- Ship samples to Diamond.
- Once samples arrive, they will be given time on a beamline. The beamtime does not need to be scheduled in advance.
- Data are collected, and you will receive an email to say that the data collections have been completed.
- Request your samples are shipped back.
When to use UDC?
| When to use UDC | When not to use UDC |
|---|---|
| Single crystals | Split crystals, multiple lattices |
|
Projects requiring data collections from many crystals e.g.
Rapid feedback on a well characterised system from a small number of new crystals |
Projects requiring manual input e.g.
|
|
Standard SAD phasing experiments
|
Phasing from limited number of crystals Complex multicrystal phasing experiments |
|
Energy range: 7-18KeV |
Energies outside this range are supported in remote access |
Current and future status
It is currently available on I03 and I04 is a key part of providing responsive beamtime allocation.
Further options for more complex experiments and broadening the scope of samples that can be collected automatically will be made available.
I03 is testing a new software stack for UDC that does not require GDA. As a result of this, you may see some differences in the presentation of output from I03 vs I04.
The main functional differences are:
- X-ray centring (XRC) uses 2 full grids on I03, rather than the grid and column approach on I04
- XRC may return multiple crystal centres and approximate dimensions on I03
- I03 UDC will skip samples that cannot be centred, either due to pin length constraints or a lack of diffraction. This will be indicated in the comment section of the relevent entry in Synchweb.
Please contact Neil Paterson ([email protected]) if you have any queries regarding your UDC session.
