Diamond Annual Review 2023/24

20 D I A M O N D L I G H T S O U R C E A N N U A L R E V I E W 2 0 2 3 / 2 4 Biological Cryo-Imaging Group MartinWalsh, Science Group Leader T he Biological Cryo-imaging Group brings together dedicated facilities for cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), X-ray and super resolution light microscopies at Diamond Light Source. The electron Bioimaging Centre (eBIC) is the national centre for cryo-EM in the UK and provides a range of capabilities and supporting facilities for single particle cryo-EM, cryo-Electron Tomography (cryo-ET) and Correlative Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM). Beamline B24 provides a full field cryo-transmission X-ray microscope dedicated to biological X-ray imaging and has also established cryo super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, which is a joint venture between Diamond and the University of Oxford. It provides a unique platform for correlative light and X-ray microscopy, and cryo-EM. The user community for the Biological Cryo-Imaging group continues to grow and training continues to be a major focus. At B24 a specialised workshop on imaging cells using the correlative cryo-soft X-ray tomography capabilities of the beamline was held last September. The workshop was a mixture of lectures and hands-on practical sessions to take potential users through all stages of the imaging workflows in place at B24. The course was targeted at graduate students and early-career researchers and was supported by funding from Instruct-ERIC which is a pan-European distributed research infrastructure making high-end technologies and methods in structural biology available to users. Instruct-ERIC is comprised of 17 member countries and organisations including the UK. The UK Instruct-ERIC centre brings together structural biology capabilities from three locations across the UK, namely the Harwell campus, the University of Oxford and the University of Leeds. Diamond is a major part of the UK centre and currently offers access to Instruct-ERIC members to Diamond’s MX suite of beamlines, Diamond’s BioSAXS beamline B21, eBIC and the Membrane Protein Laboratory. The aim is to extend this offering to provide a new access route to B24 through the UK Instruct-ERIC centre later this year. The latter will ensure continuity of access to our European user base at B24 as the Horizon 2020 funded iNEXT-Discovery project which finishes at the end of July 2024. iNEXT-Discovery provided access to structural biology infrastructure across Europe and specifically sought to enhance and further develop capabilities and foster the growth of new users through a coordinated programme of training and networking events. At eBIC it has been a busy year for the eBIC training programme which has been led and coordinated by eBIC scientist Lorna Malone. Specialist training courses with hands on practicals were carried out for cryoEM sample preparation and two further workshops covering all aspects of cryoEM, one directed at PhD students and one for researchers new to the field with different The electron Bioimaging Centre (eBIC) is the national centre for cryo-EM in the UK and provides a range of capabilities and supporting facilities for single particle cryo-EM. B24 team Archana Jadhav, Kamal Nahas, Chidinma Okolo, Maria Harkiolaki.