Max Plank Institute celebrate opening of a state-of-the-art Protein Structural Biology Laboratory.

Guests from the Martinsried Max Planck Institutes mingled with structural biologists from the nearby research centres in both Munich (Gene Center, Technical University and GSF) and Tübingen, as well as with representatives of local companies from the Martinsried Biotech campus.

Dr Jerome Basquin, senior researcher and laboratory manager for the Structural Cell Biology Dept at MPI, treated the party goers to a demonstration of the newly installed PX Scanner and Xcalibur Nova systems. The MPI is unique in being the first laboratory in mainland Europe to be able to provide access to a PX Scanner and is expecting significant uptake of the equipment from its users.

The PX Scanner will be used by the group and visiting users to identify protein crystals and to evaluate their quality using X-ray diffraction whilst undisturbed in the multi-well plate. Having identified crystals worthy of further investigation the team at MPI will harvest the protein crystals using conventional techniques and pursue full in-house X-ray data collection using the compact, high intensity micro-focus Xcalibur Nova diffractometer.

Mr Andy Dorn, European Sales Manager for Oxford Diffraction and responsible for the supply of the instruments to MPI was invited to the celebrations and commented, "I am delighted that the MPI selected Oxford Diffraction's equipment as the mainstay of their X-ray facility and I have immensely enjoyed today's events. The scientific curiosity generated by this novel equipment was most satisfying."

Professor Elena Conti, since September 2007 Director of the Structural Cell Biology Dept., and previously group leader at EMBL in Heidelberg, commented on the laboratories facilities and the day's proceedings:

"We were extremely pleased to see so many friends and colleagues at the opening of our new crystallography platform. Our choice of X-ray equipment has already been vindicated by some early results, soon after the Martinsried installation. A novel crystal form was grown and scanned in-situ by the PX Scanner and, though clearly showing diffraction spots of a protein in the Multi-Well Plate, no diffraction was evident after harvesting, freezing and transfer to the Xcalibur Nova. Crucially, this told us that our harvesting or cryo-protectant conditions were not as suitable as we had thought, and gave us the time to optimise them prior to a successful synchrotron visit just 2 days later."