The SLS Group for Macromolecular Crystallography

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Macromolecular crystallography (MX) is a technique used to determine the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules, such as proteins, DNA, or RNA, through X-ray diffraction methods.

The Macromolecular Crystallography group is responsible for three beamlines at the Swiss Light Source, the Cristallina-MX endstation at SwissFEL, and the Crystallisation Facility.

Overview of SLS MX
SLS Beamline PXI - X06SA
SLS Beamline PXII - X10SA
SLS Beamline PXIII - X06DA
Cristallina-MX at SwissFEL
Macromolecular Crystallisation Facility
MX group with Dectris

PILATUS4 detector arrives at PXIII

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On April 4, 2025, a Dectris Pilatus4 2M detector was successfully installed at beamline PXIII. In the coming weeks, this new detector will be used to measure the first macromolecular crystallography (MX) experiments using the SLS 2.0 machine.

Pacific cleaner shrimp

Bright white coloring of Pacific cleaner shrimp revelead

In a study published in Nature Photonics, researchers at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, explain the bright, white-colored stripes from Pacific cleaner shrimps, one of the most efficient white reflectors found in nature.

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Progress of the X06DA-PXIII beamline upgrade: First light in the optics hutch

On June 7, 2023, the PXIII project team successfully shone the first light into the optics hutch at the upgraded X06DA-PXIII beamline. It is an essential first step for testing new hardware and software solutions that will be implemented at SLS2.0.

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