The Macromolecular X-Ray Crystallography Facility at the Kasha Laboratory in the Institute of Molecular Biophysics (IMB) [Photos] has two rotating anode x-ray generators (Two Rigaku housed in the east side of the fourth floor of the Institute. It is one of the Core Facilities available to all the members of Structural Biology Program at Florida State University. The x-ray generators are used for collecting diffraction data from single crystals of proteins and viruses.

In the IP Set-up a Rigaku RU-H3R generator and an Osmic Blue Confocal Mirror System are coupled to a Rigaku-Automated X-ray Imaging System IV++. The image plate (IP) system sits on an extension table allowing sample to IP distances in the range of 10.0 to 42.0 cm. The data collection and processing is controlled by a dedicated Dell workstation (anaconda.sb.fsu.edu) with a dual Intel Pentium III processor and 756 MB of memory, running Microsoft Windows 7-32bit. In the CCD Set-up a Rigaku RU-H2R x-ray generator is coupled to an Osmic Purple Confocal Mirror System and a MarCCD165 from Mar-USA. The data collection for this set-up is controlled by a dedicated Linux machine (spruce.sb.fsu.edu) running RedHat Linux version 8.0 (kernel v. 2.4.18-14). The Facility has two low temperature cooling systems for collecting cryo crystallographic data; one each of Oxford CryoSystems CryoStream CryoCooler 600 and a Controller and a CryoCooler 700 along with American Magnetics' auto refill system.

The facility has additional Linux machines for data processing and archiving. Tango is a dual 2.0 GHZ AMD Athalon 64X2 processor machine running Ubuntu 8.04 Linux. Gauss is another 2.0 GHz machine running Ubuntu 8.04 Linux. Both machines have USB 2.0 and FireWire interface cards allowing attachment of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 devices. XRF has one IBM laptop computer whisper.sb.fsu.edu that is dual bootable in Linux and Windows XP. The Facility has additional Certance DDS4 and DDS5 (aka DAT72) tape drives as well as Sony and Pioneer FireWire DVD Recorders (DVD-R/RW and DVD±R/RW) for archiving the data. To assist the rapid collection and transport of data from synchrotrons to home lab, the XRF also possesses FireWire-400+USB-2.0 combo interfaced 120 and 160 GB external hard-drives from Maxtor and Iomega. The FireWire drives are compact and convenient for collecting and transporting data from synchrotrons. Check XRF Upgrade Pagesfor recent and earlier upgrades to the Facility. Another useful link is the Manuals page.

The Facility has several optical microscopes like Olympus SZ-6045 with SZX-Ill Illuminator base and a Leica S8 APO stereo zoom microscope. They are used for crystal mounting and digital documentation purposes, respectively. The Facility has a Taylor-Wharton long-term HC34 CryoStorage dewar. The facility has access to additional computational resources, a machine shop and an electronics shop. The facility has, in addition to the dedicated Crystal Coldroom, a low vibration reach-in Crystallization Chamber for growing crystals at temperatures in the range 10-22°C. We have an Environmental Monitoring Unit from APC for measuring the temperature and relative humidity of Crystal and Control (detector) Rooms. The Facility has an automated Helium gas cylinder switcher called BioSwitch to continuously supply Helium gas to Osmic and Supper mirror systems.