Protein microcrystals and the design of a microdiffractometer: current experience and plans at EMBL and ESRF/ID13

There is a growing demand for the examination of protein microcrystals at t hird-generation synchrotron sources. After successful pilot experiments at EMBL/ESRF, which proved that protein microcrystals are often suitable for d ata collection, operation of the microfocus beamline ID13 was made more use r-friendly and suitable for macromolecular crystallography experiments. Giv en the excellent quality of the beamline microfocusing optics, the key elem ent for successful experiments becomes the handling and visualization of mi crocrystals. To address this, a microdiffractometer has been designed to al low maximum precision combined with ease of usage and is currently under co nstruction.