Beam on! at MAXIV

Work package 4 applied for time at MAXIV through their Educational beamtime scheme last year and were happy to be granted the possibility to educate more people on what large scale infrastructure can be used for.  

The students were divided into two groups and were either directed towards CoSAXS or NanoMax. There they had introductions to the instruments, went into the beam line, had a look at different sample stages and ran one experiment. At NanoMax, they could see how different elements such as iron and sulfur differed between healthy and sick lung tissue and how the technique can be used to understand what elements are accumulated where. At CoSAXS they were shown how a SEC-SAXS set-up can be used to look at proteins such as BSA. On top of that, the students also went by SoftiMax and were introduced to the instrument by the beam line scientist.  

Zandra Gidlöf, a PhD student in NextBioForm had a positive experience of the course: 

“I got a better understanding of both general X-ray principles and what different beamlines can offer. The involved presenters were also very helpful in communications around on how to use MAXIV for our research, and getting input on proposal writing is always useful!” 

Overall, the visit was a success, and the students got the opportunity to discuss their research questions and how they could be solved using LSRI with the beam line scientists. 

“For me, the best part was that I got to have inspiring discussions with experienced MAXIV beamline scientist. These discussions included both general applications and potential experiments that could be applied in my own research!”, says Zandra.