Dr. John Henry Beale

Serial Crystallography Beamline Scientist
Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland
Biography
John received a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London, UK before completing a DPhil in Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, UK in membrane protein structural biology under the guidance of Prof. Simon Newstead. In 2016, John moved to the UK synchrotron facility, Diamond Light Source, where he developed serial crystallography techniques on beamline I24. John was then awarded a PSI-Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship in the MX group at PSI in 2019 to continue these investigations. In 2020, John became the serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) beamline scientist on Cristallina, the third experimental station of SwissFEL's ARAMIS beamline. John's chief responsibility is to lead the Cristallina-MX project which aims to reduce the barriers of SFX to new and inexperienced users. Cristallina-MX will be open for users in the 2nd SwissFEL call in 2023 for the first semester of 2024.
Scientific Research
Since 2018, John has tried to develop strategies to create the samples required for modern serial crystallography experiments at either synchrotrons or XFELs. These include methods to create large volumes of micro-crystals and fixed-target mounting and loading techniques. John is now also working towards the realization of a fixed-target endstation on Cristallina called SwissMX. The endstation's primary purpose will be high-throughput SFX for room-temperature time-resolved experiments.
Publications
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Owen RL, de Sanctis D, Pearson AR, Beale JH
A standard descriptor for fixed-target serial crystallography
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. 2023; 79(8): 668-672. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798323005429
DORA PSI -
Wranik M, Weinert T, Slavov C, Masini T, Furrer A, Gaillard N, et al.
Watching the release of a photopharmacological drug from tubulin using time-resolved serial crystallography
Nature Communications. 2023; 14(1): 903 (12 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36481-5
DORA PSI -
Huang C-Y, Aumonier S, Engilberge S, Eris D, Smith KML, Leonarski F, et al.
Probing ligand binding of endothiapepsin by 'temperature-resolved' macromolecular crystallography
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. 2022; 78: 964-974. https://doi.org/10.1107/S205979832200612X
DORA PSI -
Moreno-Chicano T, Carey LM, Axford D, Beale JH, Doak RB, Duyvesteyn HME, et al.
Complementarity of neutron, XFEL and synchrotron crystallography for defining the structures of metalloenzymes at room temperature
IUCrJ. 2022; 9(5): 610-624. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252522006418
DORA PSI -
Beale JH, Marsh ME
Optimizing the growth of endothiapepsin crystals for serial crystallography experiments
Journal of Visualized Experiments. 2021; 168: e61896 (30 pp.). https://doi.org/10.3791/61896
DORA PSI -
Butryn A, Simon PS, Aller P, Hinchliffe P, Massad RN, Leen G, et al.
An on-demand, drop-on-drop method for studying enzyme catalysis by serial crystallography
Nature Communications. 2021; 12(1): 4461 (7 pp.). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24757-7
DORA PSI -
Martiel I, Beale JH, Karpik A, Huang C-Y, Vera L, Olieric N, et al.
Versatile microporous polymer-based supports for serial macromolecular crystallography
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. 2021; 77(9): 1153-1167. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798321007324
DORA PSI -
Beale JH
Macromolecular X-ray crystallography: soon to be a road less travelled?
Acta Crystallographica Section D: Structural Biology. 2020; 76(5): 400-405. https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798320004660
DORA PSI -
Pfanzagl V, Beale JH, Michlits H, Schmidt D, Gabler T, Obinger C, et al.
X-ray-induced photoreduction of heme metal centers rapidly induces active-site perturbations in a protein-independent manner
Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2020; 295(39): 13488-13501. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.ra120.014087
DORA PSI