JUNGFRAU is a charge-integrating, two-dimensional pixel detector developed at the Paul Scherrer Institut for use at free-electron lasers, in particular SwissFEL, and synchrotron light sources. On the 10th October, the first protein crystallography experiment using the JUNGFRAU detector, was performed at the beamline X06SA (PXI) of the Swiss Light Source by the members of the Protein Crystallography and Detectors groups at PSI.
Diffraction from single, native insulin crystal was recorded on two JUNGFRAU modules consisting of one million pixels in total. The data were of excellent quality, as judged by the overall crystallographic data statistics. It was possible to perform de novo structure determination from this data using single-wavelength anomalous diffraction phasing method. This result demonstrates that the quality of diffraction data recorded using the JUNGFRAU detector is sufficient for obtaining accurate measurements of Bragg peak intensities, which were necessary for successful structure solution.
About PSI
The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) develops, builds and operates large, complex research facilities and makes them available to the Swiss and international research community. The institute's own key research priorities are in the fields of matter and materials, energy and environment and human health. PSI is committed to the training of future generations. Therefore about one quarter of the staff are post-docs, post-graduates or apprentices. Altogether PSI employs 1900 people, thus being the largest research institute in Switzerland. The annual budget amounts to approximately CHF 350 million.