Daniel James

Lipidic Cubic Phase Injection for Serial X-ray Crystallography
Presenter

Daniel James

Arizona State University

Abstract

High intensity x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) pulses are highly destructive for biological samples. Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) experiments require sample to be replaced after each XFEL pulse, and have typically used liquid microjets to continuously renew sample. The high flow rate associated with these liquid microjets requires large volumes of sample, most of which runs to waste between shots. An injector designed to extrude a viscous gel-like material called lipidic cubic phase (LCP) was developed to address this problem. LCP, commonly used as a growth medium for membrane protein crystals, lends itself to low flow rate jetting and so reduces the amount of sample wasted significantly.