UK MAD BEAMLINE AT ESRF

Macromolecular crystallography is the most powerful method available to biologists to determine the precise three-dimensional arrangement of atoms within proteins and other complex biological molecules. By tuning the wavelength of X-rays such that they interact strongly with certain atoms within the molecule researchers can more easily unravel the complete structure. This method is called MAD and this grant asks for funds to provide open access to all UK researchers to one of the top MAD beamlines in Europe. The output of BM14 will be several hundred new structures some of which are likely to be of great biomedical importance.

BM14 is a dedicated macromolecular crystallography beamline at the ESRF that is currently being operated by the UK Research Councils as a Collaborative Research group (CRG). The beamliine was designed specifically for anomalous diffraction experiments, in particular, MAD and SAD, which are the methods of choice for the de novo structure determination of biological macromolecules. It provides the UK crystallographic community with open and rapid access to a third generation synchrotron tuneable beamline through a paperless, web-based peer-reviewed beamline application system.

BM14 is arguably the most stable and successful MAD beamline in Europe, being cited in some 100 papers in 2004 alone. This proposal requests funds to enable BM14 to continue this provision for the UK community to mesh with the start-up of operations at the new UK synchrotron, DIAMOND.