Tools for supporting solution scattering during the COVID-19 pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, synchrotron beamlines were forced to limit user access. Performing routine measurements became a challenge. At the Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamline, new instrumentation and mail-in protocols have been developed to remove the access barrier to solution scattering measurements. Our efforts took advantage of existing instrumentation and coincided with the larger effort at NSLS-II to support remote measurements. Given the limited staff-user interaction for mail-in measurements, additional software tools have been developed to ensure data quality, to automate the adjustments in data processing, as users would otherwise rely on the experience of the beamline staff, and produce a summary of the initial assessments of the data. This report describes the details of these developments.

Automated summary

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Life Science X-ray Scattering (LiX) beamline developed new instrumentation and mail-in protocols to overcome the access barrier to solution scattering measurements. Efforts were made to utilize existing instrumentation and align with the larger support for remote measurements at NSLS-II. Additional software tools were developed to ensure data quality, automate adjustments in data processing, and provide initial data assessment summaries for mail-in measurements where staff-user interaction is limited.