Researchers in Toronto first to put beamline's Remote Control abilities to the test.

May 24, 2013

The Canadian Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (CMCF) is excited to announce that the first session of Remote data collection on beamline 08ID-1 occurred this week on May 23. Dr. Wolfram Tempel and colleagues from the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) in Toronto were the first to put the Remote Control capabilities of this highly-productive Canadian Light Source crystallography beamline to the test. This mode of operation allows researchers to collect data as though they were present at the beamline without leaving their home laboratories, thereby saving costs associated with travel and making data collection extremely efficient. The researchers shipped their samples in standard containers which were loaded into the robotic automounter by beamline staff. Using a freely-available software client installed on their laboratory computers, the research team was able to connect to the beamline through a secure encrypted channel in order to perform their experiments with minimal intervention by staff. This new capability follows on the heels of beamline 08B1-1, which has had Remote Control capabilities in place since 2011. Remote Control is now available on both CMCF beamlines to Users with active proposals, after completing appropriate training. Users wishing to use this capability should contact beamline staff to discuss their project.