Dr. Thomas Schneider, European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Hamborg, Germany

Macromolecular Crystallography With Synchrotron Radiation - What's Next?

High-brilliance synchrotrons such as PETRA III - and the soon to come NSLS II and MAX IV - are capable of producing X-ray beams with high flux, low divergence, wide tunability, and exquisite stability. Versatile optics, nano-mechanics for crystal handling, modern pixel-array detectors, and ever more powerful computer programs allow to extract meaningful structural information from crystals that would not have been considered of any use some years ago. I will describe the status of the EMBL beamlines for macromolecular crystallography at PETRA III, their use in interesting experimental situations (small crystals, large unit cells, serial crystallography, low-energy phasing etc.), and present ideas for the future.