Researchers from the Burnet Institute have chalked up a previously impossible measurement at the Australian Synchrotron, assessing intramolecular interactions in protein solutions at concentrations down to a few micrograms per millilitre on the small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) beamline at the AS.

This result is a milestone in three years of intensive instrument development effort by AS staff done in collaboration with users of the SAXS beamline. The original design requirement for the beamline was to handle protein concentrations down to 500 micrograms per millilitre. Beamline development work has included improvements to beam position feedback and instrument stability, installing single crystal slit blades, increasing signal:noise ratios, sample handling and data acquisition automation, and development of in-situ size exclusion chromatography.

The Burnet Institute researchers use the SAXS beamline for research into HIV prevention.

Right: the SAXS beamline at the Australian Synchrotron