2021 Volume 63 Issue 1 Pages 44-52
Since 1999, SER-CAT has been working towards the concept of providing its members with a “Virtual Beamline”, which could be integrated into their daily workflow much like your X-ray lab down the hall.
We began investigating robotic crystal mounting automation in 2000 with Oceaneering Space Systems. In 2003, a highly modified Berkeley ALS Automounter was installed on 22BM. Using 22BM as a user-based testbed, the beamline and experiment control interface SERGUI was continually modified until a reliable, robust and user-friendly system was achieved. In 2006, the SER-CAT Virtual Beamline came online providing remote crystal screening and data collection capability on both 22ID（capacity 450 crystals）and 22BM（capacity 96 crystals）.
The SERGUI beam line control interface allows the direct remote access of SER-CAT beamline from their home labs including：1）beamline/goniometer optimization, 2）wavelength selection, 3）fluorescence scans, 4）automatic crystal centering and rastering, 5）automated crystal screening, 6）MAD/SAD/Helical data collection and others. Today over 95% of SER-CAT members routinely collect data remotely. SER-CAT has also implemented 12-hour shifts with 16-hours/day and 7-days/week of on-site user support to assist users for their remote accesses from home labs. Multiple Access Time（MAT）shifts have also been made available to SER-CAT members for fast turn-around and flexible data collection capabilities.
SER-CAT also provides its members the on-the-fly automated data processing using XDS, KYLIN and DIALS. HKL2000, XDS, MOSFLM, and DIALS for manual data processing. All user data can be remotely, quickly, reliably and securely downloaded from SER-CAT's Globus/GridFTP archive server to the users' home systems anywhere and anytime.
During the annual SER-CAT Symposium, awards are given out to recognize senior investigator's “Outstanding Science” and young investigator's “Outstanding Research Achievement” carried out at SER-CAT.
