The macromolecular crystallography beamlines of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin at the BESSY II storage ring: history, current status and future directions
Since 2003, the Macromolecular Crystallography (MX) group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has been operating three MX beamlines at the BESSY II storage ring in Berlin. These beamlines were established to support the emerging structural genomics initiatives founded in Germany, Europe, and overseas around the turn of the century. Over the past two decades, these beamlines have been continuously developed to enable state-of-the-art diffraction experiments and to provide supporting facilities such as a sample preparation laboratory, a spectroscopy laboratory, a Biosafety Level 1 laboratory and all necessary computing resources for the MX and chemical crystallography user community. Currently, more than 100 independent research groups from the greater Berlin area, Germany, and Europe utilize these beamlines. Over time, more than 4500 Protein Data Bank depositions have been accrued based on data collected at the beamlines. This paper presents historical aspects of the beamlines, their current status including their research output, and future directions.
Authors
- Michael Hellmig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4999-5718)
- M.C. Wahl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2811-5307)
- F. Lennartz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5617-5502)
- Melanie Oelker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7301-8445)
- T. Barthel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8747-3112)
- Ruslan Ovsyannikov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6311-5516)
- Pushpendra Singh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7277-115X)
- L.S. Benz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6369-8707)
- Christine Gless
- Volodymyr Bon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9851-5031)
- David T. James (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5101-745X)
- Gert Weber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3624-1060)
- Udo Heinemann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8191-3850)
- M.S. Weiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2362-7047)
- U. Müeller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7139-0718)
- Thomas Hauß (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9325-6432)
- Camilla Genter Dieguez
- Ronald Förster
- Thomas Crosskey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9907-8518)
Institutions
- Max Delbrück Center (DE)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (DE)
- Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
- Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Synchrotron Radiation
- Published
- 2025-03-31
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1107/s1600577525001110
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Enzyme Structure and Function
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.62
Funders
- Astex Pharmaceuticals
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
- Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie
- Leibniz-Gemeinschaft