Robotic Sample Changer Automation

Problem: The control of experimental data collection at a Synchrotoron light source commonly requires the use of equipment from many different sources. The development of automatic screening of Protein samples at such a facility also requires the automation of a flow of control. Automating processes and integrating hardware and software from multiple sources can be complex. A major challenge is to deliver a user friendly interface while retaining all capabilities of the equipment.

Solution: At STFC Daresbury Laboratory we automated the data acquisition system for protein crystallography samples. Using this automation we collaborated on wider European projects to deliver an intelligent protein crystallography data acquisition and analysis system.

Some hardware components of the experimental setup come with software to provide low level control. Partners in the European collaboration developed algorithms for sample recognition. Another European collaboration developed a system to allow the automatic screening and ranking of samples based on data collected from each and analysis via exisiting software packages. We wrapped these, and other software, to develop an integrated and automatic system.

Robotic Sample Changer in use at a Protein Crystallography facility

Benefits: The system significantly increased the effective use of scientists’ time and data collection time in a number of ways.

Samples could be couriered to the laboratory for data acquisition and analysis.
Samples could be automatically loaded, analysed and screened to determine the best samples to use for full data collection.
Limited and expensive Synchrotron beamtime is used efficiently and positive results are maximised.
The results are instantly available to the scientist at the home laboratory.

Protein structures are solved more rapidly contributing to faster research development in biotech areas.