X-Ray Crystallography Facility

As one of the FSU-wide Core Facilities, the multi-user macromolecular x-ray crystallography facility (XRF) at the Kasha Laboratory Building (KLB) in the Institute of Molecular Biophysics (IMB) provides training, expertise, and assistance for crystallizing and determining the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules and their complexes. It is available to all the members of Structural Biology Program and others at FSU. XRF is located on the East side of the fourth floor of KLB (see the floor plan). More facility information is available at X-Ray Facility page.

Instruments & Accessories

XRF has Rigaku RU-H2R & RU-H3R x-ray generators, Osmic confocal mirror systems, Rigaku R-Axis IV++ IP detector and Mar CCD165 detector. It has Oxford CryoStream cryo coolers, American Magnetics auto-refill system stereo-zoom microscopes, crystallization chambers maintained at variety of temperatures, and data processing hardware and software. It has an Art Robbins Instruments Crystal Gryphon crystallization robot, Formulatrix Rock Imager 1 and Formulator 16, Rumed Crystal Incubator, and IMB designed and home built simple robotic imager. The Facility has a ThorLabs DCC1645C digital camera for the Leica S8 APO microscope. More Info >>>

Synchrotron Beam Access

The Facility Director also coordinates both remote and mail-in synchrotron x-ray diffraction data collection work using FSU’s membership in SER-CAT in Advanced Photon Source Beamline 22 and NSLS-II Beamline AMX-17ID-1 . More Info >>>

XRF Fee Structure

Starting from July 01, 2010 XRF charges a user-fee to defray part of the cost of running the Facility. Please see XRF Fee Structure for more information about fees. Updated user fees go into effect Jul 01, 2019.

XRF Boot Camp

Every August before the start of the Fall semester, XRF runs a Boot Camp for new the graduate students. The three week Boot Camp is part of the Core Facilities Workshop. Please see XRF Boot Camp for this year’s schedule and syllabus. Due to COVID-19 XRF 2020 Bootcamp is deferred to August 2021 and the 2021 Boot Camp will be held in early September 2021

Updated: August 17, 2021.

Facility Director

Contact and Address

Ph: 1-850-644-6448
tsomasundaram@fsu.edu 
Inst Molecular Biophys | KLB 414
91 Chieftan Way
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306-4380

Facility Information
Established in 1993, the XRF has served over 200+ users, including 30+ PIs from 9 universities and has produced hundreds publications.
Acknowledgement
An acknowledgement is appropriate when a Facility and/or its Director is used for routine data collection, sample preparation, general advice, etc. When the Facility Director is involved at the level of method development, data analysis and interpretation, or other significant contribution to the project, (s)he should be included as a coauthor of the publication.
Boot Camp
For three week period in early August XRF runs a Core Facility Practical Training Course (Boot Camp) for all new graduate students. More information about 2021 Boot Camp is available here.