Click here to find details and recordings of past webinars
The ECA kindly invites you to the 33rd ECA Lunch webinar:
Abstract
For nearly two decades, Hybrid Photon Counting (HPC) detectors have revolutionized data collection in Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography (MX), enabling faster acquisition speeds and significantly enhancing data quality through improved signal-to-noise ratios, higher spatial resolution, and an expanded dynamic range comparing to the previous generation of detectors. Traditionally, MX was used to determine the molecules’ structures using the single crystal rotation method. Today, an increasing number of synchrotron beamlines are implementing more advanced techniques, such as Serial Synchrotron Crystallography (SSX) using multiple smaller crystals, broadening MX applications to include both structural determination and dynamic, time-resolved studies (1). Additionally, researchers are exploring the advantages of using higher energy levels, surpassing the traditional 12.4 keV, to further improve the data quality (2) and reduce the radiation damage. In this talk we will discuss the benefits of the HPC technology in MX, focusing on the best practices for data collection in both single-crystal and SSX experiments at varying energy levels. By optimising the data acquisition methods to meet the specific needs of each technique, exploiting fully the detectors capabilities, we can maximise the data quality, approaching the limit where the crystal quality being the only limiting factor.
References:
1. Förster A, Brandstetter S, Schulze-Briese C. Transforming X-ray detection with hybrid photon counting detectors. Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2019 Jun 17;377(2147):20180241. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2018.0241.
2. Donath T, Šišak Jung D, Burian M, Radicci V, Fitch AN, Dejoie C, Zhang B, Ruat M, Hanfland M, Kewish CM, van Riessen GA, Naumenko D, Amenitsch H, Bourenkov G, Bricogne G, Chari A, Schulze-Briese C. EIGER2 hybrid-photon-counting X-ray detectors for advanced synchrotron diffraction experiments. J Synchrotron Radiat. 2023 Jul 1;30(Pt 4):723-738. doi: 10.1107/S160057752300454X.
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
“””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
About the ECA Lunch webinars:
The ECA lunch webinars with an educational or scientific focus were invented following the strong wish to strengthen and vitalize the European crystallographic community. They are a monthly webinar series by the European Crystallographic Association (ECA) and involve all GIGs/SIGs.
The webinars are organized in an online setting such as Zoom (45min + 15min Q&A) and take place every first or second (depending on the schedule of other ECA activities) Thursday of a month at lunchtime (1:00 PM CET). Webinars will be announced via social media, mailing list, and here.
The webinars are organized by a steering committee of GIG01-members:
Breternitz, Joachim
Gaidamaka, Anna
Germann, Luzia
Hans, Philipp
Mazzeo, Paolo P.
Morana, Marta
Pisacic, Mateja
Prencipe, Michele
Advisory board:
Heinemann, Udo
van der Lee, Arie
