DECTRIS Application Webinar Series 2021

DECTRIS’ detectors; your results

It takes two for the take two! The second edition of DECTRIS application webinar series is focused on two (of the many) highlights that have been a hot topic of discussion over the corona year(s): high X-ray energies and structural biology. In these two sessions, six external speakers will cover various X-ray applications, and provide beginners and experts with an opportunity to learn and discuss. Our advice? Take two! 

 

June – July 2021
High Energy X-rays at synchrotron sources and in laboratory applications

The excitement about the ESRF-EBS upgrade, the launch of the laboratory EIGER2 R CdTe series, and many challenging experiments got us inspired, motivated and curious about the use of high energy X-rays not only at beamlines, but also in laboratory diffractometers. For this webinar session, we invited thee speakers to tell us their side of the story:

Dr. Catherine Dejoie (ID22, ESRF) will focus on high resolution X-Ray Powder Diffraction and Pair Distribution Function at the ID22 beamline of the ESRF

Dr. Jens Meyer (STOE) will tackle charge density studies, and the experimental needs to collect high quality X-ray diffraction data in the lab

Dr. Vitali Prakapenka (GSECARS, APS) will present the challenges and solutions of collecting high pressure X-ray diffraction data for samples of varying crystallinity. 

 

September 2021
Structural biology: from synchrotrons to laboratories

While the past 2020 could be described as the year of the coronation of structural biology as a queen of analytical tools, this year we are celebrating another of its successes: 50 years of the Protein Data Bank. This webinar session reflects on structural biology, and emphasizes technology advances, international collaborations and hard work as the milestones of its success:

Dr. Sam Horrell (I24, DLS) will present the I24 beamline and discuss the international collaborations in the SARS-CoV-2 research

Dr. Daniel Kneller (ORNL) will introduce the capabilities of a laboratory diffractometer to collect X-ray diffraction data for structure determination of macromolecular samples  

Dr. Kunio Hirata (RIKEN, Spring-8) will give an overview of RIKEN macromolecular beamlines and present the recent highlights of their research with a focus on BL32XU – the highest flux density beamline.


These are just to get us started! Even more application-focused webinars will follow, so stay tuned! If you, too, would like to share your research results with the DECTRIS community, please do not hesitate to contact us at marketing@dectris.com. We will be happy to organize a joint online event with you! 


Past webinars

ID22 at ESRF for high-energy PXRD and PDF

The ID22 beamline at the ESRF offers the possibility to carry out high-flux, high-resolution PXRD and PDF measurements over a wide range of X-ray energies. Following the ESRF-EBS upgrade, ID22 has adopted a novel experimental setup, which relies on the combination of multianalyzer crystals and a 2D HPC-detector.

In this webinar, Dr. Catherine Dejoie, beamline scientist at ID22, will present the possibilities of the upgraded beamline, and explain how the novel experimental setup will be used to optimize peak shapes and statistics, remove parasitic effects and allow for volume profiling of the sample.

High Energy XRD in a Lab

Nowadays there is a huge variety of wavelengths used in the single crystal laboratory diffractometer, from Cu radiation up to In radiation. With the ongoing development of new generations of X-ray sources and detectors, it is now possible to perform experiments in the home lab, which were preferably measured in synchrotron facilities in the past. As a result, a lot of “non-standard” experiments became prominent and can be considered more and more to be routine.

In this webinar, Dr. Jens Meyer from STOE will present a variety of experiments that can be performed in the home lab with a STOE STADIVARI Single Crystal Diffractometer in combination with DECTRIS CdTe detectors and the new generation of high performance microfocus sources. He will give insights into experimental setups and data collection techniques for Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC) experiments, PDF experiments and charge density studies. Additionally, recent advances in detector technology will be highlighted and the benefits tangible for scientists will be made transparent, e.g., gaining measurement speed and improving data quality.

High pressure XRD studies at APS

Investigation of processes that undergo in deep Earth is paved with many challenges: extreme pressure and temperature conditions, samples with various degrees of crystallinity, small sample amounts, and
weak diffraction signals. What does this mean for the experimental setup?

In this webinar, Dr. Vitali Prakapenka presents the 13-ID-D beamline at the Geo-Soil-Environment Center for advanced Radiation Studies (GSECARS). He will highlight how the experimental setup is used to unravel phase transitions of mantle minerals and core alloys and dynamics of core formation.

Structural biology and crystal healing at DLS

Tackling complex problems in the field of structural biology has never been easy, but the corona crisis has made it particularly difficult. The answer? Good experimental setups and great collaborations.   

In this webinar, Dr. Sam Horrell, a beamline scientist at Diamond Light Source beamline I24, will present the current setup on I24 and the types of experiments you can perform there. He will also reflect on collaborative structural biology at Diamond and working with the Coronavirus Structural Taskforce, a collective of structural biologists assessing the quality of Coronavirus structures to aid in structure based drug design.

Macromolecular crystallography in a lab

Synchrotron radiation has given structural biologists many reasons to be very happy: high quality data, automated routines, and high-throughput of samples. Why then to collect your data in a lab?    

In this webinar, Dr. Daniel Kneller, a postdoctoral researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will explain the unique insights for anti-coronavirus drug design enabled by home-source X-ray diffraction data at room-temperature. He will present the current capabilities of a laboratory diffractometer to solve macromolecular structures, discuss protein crystal sample handling for data collection, reflect on obtained data quality, and significance for joint X-ray/neutron model refinement. 

Macromolecular crystallography at Spring-8

Four of the RIKEN beamlines are set to serve particular challenges of structural biology: high throughput of samples, BioSAXS investigations, and dealing with micro-sized crystals.

In this webinar, Dr. Kunio Hirata, a senior scientist at SPring-8, will present the RIKEN macromolecule crystallography beamlines, with the focus on the BL32XU – the highest flux density beamline, used for microcrystal diffraction. He will give insights in experimental setups and data collection techniques, and highlight some recent publications.