Welcome to VMXi

VMXi is open for user experiments. Please contact the beamline staff if you would like to collect data at VMXi. You may also select VMXi as part of your BAG application.

The Versatile Macromolecular Xtallography in-situ (VMXi) beamline is dedicated to room temperature data collection from macromolecular crystals. It is an entirely automated facility for characterisation of, and data collection directly from, crystallisation experiments in situ.

There are several key advantages of in situ diffraction:

Experiments can be carried out without any manipulation of individual crystals, thus preserving crystal integrity - from dehydration, manual handling, cold shock and the impact of cryoprotectant
High quality room temperature structures can be determined routinely by automated multiplex merging of datasets from several crystals.
It provides feedback on the diffraction, crystal quality and, in many cases, unit-cell parameters and space group, even in the case of micro-crystals (10-15 μm), allowing effective optimisation of crystallisation.
Structural data is collected at near physiological conditions.

Mini Hutch and Formulatrix Imagers

The robot will collect plates from the Formulatrix Rock Imager automation port.

The sample position with viewing system and Eiger detector.

Example output of screening across three wells. Heat maps show the areas of higher bragg spots, resolution or intensity

Output results for 5 datasets automatically merged from the samples in a drop.

Protein-to-structure pipeline for ambient-temperature in situ crystallography at VMXi
Read more on IUCr

VMXi Capabilities

Currently VMXi offers:

Oscillation experiments (up to 60 degrees of data / crystal) for crystals >10 μm with automatic data processing and merging with results accessed via ISPyB.
Grid scans over a user-defined area to assess diffraction quality.

Which can help you with the following experiment types:

Room temperature data collection including ligand/ fragment studies
Optimisation of crystallisation conditions
Data collection on samples sensitive to cryocooling/ handling

There are three modes of access to VMXi, all by prior arrangement with the VMXi team:

Bringing plates (either Greiner Crystal QuickX™ or MiTeGen In-Situ-1™) to the RCaH or to VMXi
Users coming to Diamond to set up plates in the Crystallisation Facility
Shipping samples to be set up by Diamond staff

If you would like to collect room temperature data at VMXi, please contact the beamline team letting us know the problem you are trying to solve, how samples will be provided and by when so we can review what we can support.

If you require further details, do not hesitate to get in touch - [email protected]

J. Sanchez-Weatherby, J. Sandy, H. Mikolajek, CMC. Lobley, M. Mazzorana, J. Kelly, G. Preece, R. Littlewood, TLM. Sørensen VMXi: a fully automated, fully remote, high-flux in situ macromolecular crystallography beamline Synchrotron Radiat. J. 26 (2019) 291-301.

H. Mikolajek, J. Sanchez-Weatherby, J. Sandy, R.J. Gildea, I. Campeotto, H. Cheruvara, J.D. Clarke, T. Foster, S. Fujii, I.T. Paulsen, B.S. Shahk & M.A. Hough Protein-to-structure pipeline for ambient-temperature in situ crystallography at VMXi ICUr 10 (2023) 420-429

Endstation Deliverables

Techniques	Automated screening and interactive data collection of samples in standard Greiner Crystal QuickX ™ or MiTeGen In-Situ-1 ™ plates using wide band pass beam from multilayer-based monochromator.
Key performance parameters	Ability to screen 500 1000 µm² regions of interest in 24 hours. Collection of 4000 oscillation datasets in 24 hours. Accuracy between off-line and on-line position of samples should be better than 0.5 µm.
Sample environment	20 °C sample environment. Local storage, sample visualisation,dedicated goniometer.
Robot/Sample manipulation	Plate handling robot for automated handling. 10 second exchange time between sample position and local storage. 1 minute exchange time between local storage and long-term storage.

Features include:

In-situ data collection
Dectris Eiger2 X 4M detector - maximum frame rate of 560 Hz, 75 x 75 µm² silicon sensor

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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Diamond House
Harwell Science & Innovation Campus
Didcot
Oxfordshire
OX11 0DE

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VMXi Contact

Science Group Leader

Dave Hall

I02-2 VMXi