Design and Development of a Robot-Based Automation System for Cryogenic Crystal Sample Mounting at the Advanced Photon Source

Abstract

X‐ray crystallography is the primary method to determine the 3D structures of complex macromolecules at high resolution. In the years to come, the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and similar 3rd‐generation synchrotron sources elsewhere will become the most powerful tools for studying atomic structures of biological molecules. One of the major bottlenecks in the x‐ray data collection process is the constant need to change and realign the crystal sample. This is a very time‐ and manpower‐consuming task. An automated sample mounting system will help to solve this bottleneck problem. We have developed a novel robot‐based automation system for cryogenic crystal sample mounting at the APS. Design of the robot‐based automation system, as well as its on‐line test results at the Argonne Structural Biology Center (SBC) 19‐BM experimental station, are presented in this paper.