Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a powerful technique in structural biology. SAXS enables the investigation of the structure and dynamics of biomacromolecules under various buffer conditions, including salt concentration, pH, presence or absence of ligands, and changes in temperature and pressure. SAXS provides insights into global information about the size and shape of biomacromolecules, conformational changes, complex formation, quaternary structure, oligomerization behavior, assembly and folding, flexibility of fragments, or entire structures, etc. SAXS data can also be used in tandem with other biophysical methods (including crystallography, NMR, AFM, and cryo-EM) by providing additional restraints that further improve simulations, validate structural models, as well as find missing fragments.
The mission of the SAXS Core facility is to provide support for research projects from CCR principal investigators (PIs), NIH intramural PIs, and extramural academic research groups/laboratories. This support includes providing routine access to the synchrotron SAXS/WAXS beamline at the Advanced Photon Source and in-house SAXS instrument, as well as expertise in experimental design, data collection, data processing, data analysis/modelling, and interpretation. Our main focus is to determine the structure of biomacromolecules and their complexes in solution. The research field includes but is not limited to structural studies of nucleic acids, proteins, protein assemblies, virus particles, lipid membranes, protein/DNA, and protein/RNA complexes.
The SAXS Core facility is a CCR resource dedicated to the CCR researchers. However, we also make this resource accessible to non-CCR users free of charge. For more details, please visit our website.