How to submit a proposal and prepare your experiment
Practicalities to submit a proposal and prepare your experiment in XALOC
How to submit your proposal
Proposals are only accepted during call for proposals periods. Four call for proposals have been issued so far, last period currently open to accept proposals to be carried out during 2015. Please contact the Alba user office for more information.
In the proposal a beamline contact is required (will not necessarily be the local contact). You may contact any member of the scientific staff of beamline.
XALOC standards and requirements
Be sure that you are well provided with the standards used in XALOC
| Sample changer |
The automatic sample changer of the beamline is the CATS from Irelec. The capacity of the sample storage Dewar is 90 samples (9 cassettes, 10 samples each). See picture of the EH showing Pilatus detector, diffractometer (with mini-kappa mount) and sample changer (Irelec Cats, in yellow). Currently the sample changer can not be operated during night shifts.  |
| Caps/Vials | Only SPINE caps/vials are supported. For now, only Molecular Dimensions SPINE caps/vials (for example MD7-406) will be loaded into the CATS sample changer. Other brands are accepted for manual mounting. For more detailed information about the SPINE sample holder standard, please visit: http://www.embl.fr/spinesampleholder/ |
| Pin length | 22 mm pin length is strongly recommended, if you bring longer or shorter pins, make sure to bring an empty pin (sample) to test the position of the cryostream before mounting your samples. Any common brand for the pins is allowed (Hampton, MD, etc). |
| Cassettes (pucks) |
Only 10-sample SPINE (ESRF/EMBL) cassettes (pucks/baskets) are supported for automatic mounting in the CATS sample changer. 9 cassettes (90 samples) can be loaded at a time. |
| Capillaries | Capillaries need to be mounted on a magnetic SPINE cap |
| Crystallization plates |
Not supported yet. |
| Back up system |
External hard disk drive (preferred) Please bring your own external hard disk drive sftp may also be possible depending on amount of data. |
| Software | Available software for data processing |
| Wet laboratory | You have at your disposal a wet laboratory close to the beamline for standard crystal manipulation and preparation |
A complete list of the sample environment instrumentation and used standards is found here.
Rapid Access Beamtime
The Rapid Access Beamtime has now been implemented. This type of beamtime allows the approved proposals to have beamtime for those projects that require to test and collect data urgently from a limited number of crystals. The beamtime can be allocated 3 to 14 days after receiving the request
- A maximum of 20 crystals is allowed
- The rapid access beamtime uses 1 shift from the total number of awarded shifts
- (For Spanish Institutions only) only one visiting user is funded.
- The use Rapid Access Beamtime is limited to 2 times per cycle and per proposal/BAG
The conditions to request the Rapid Access Beamtime are:
- All the visiting users must be registered in the Alba User Portal
- The Safety Responsible Declaration and the Biosafety Declaration must be updated
Dewar Shipping and Management
Consult the Dewar shipping and management page.
Note that, as a principle, Alba is taking care of the shipped Dewars inside the facility only. Research groups are responsible to ask the courier for the shipping go and return,
How to get your data
External Drive (preferred)
Preferred way to bring the data with you is via external drive (mounted on Linux or Windows) on site on USB2 or USB3 port. You will find precise instructions at the beamline.
Via vpn from home
In case you could not back up your data via external drive on site, you can still retrieve the data from home laboratory:
- Access to http://vpn.cells.es
- Type your username (ex. u2012xxxxxx) and password
- To change your password you have to log in to https://citrix.cells.es/ and go to "Preferences"
Note that data storage is only guaranteed for 6 months after your experiment, although the data is usually stored longer.
Please report your publications!
Should you produce or be accepted for a publication containing data from Alba experiments, please report it using this form and sending it to Alba useroffice email (useroffice /at/ cells.es). Your collaboration is vital to track the Alba production and be in a better position to serve your future experiments.
Other Questions
Please consult the Frequently Asked Questions page for further information.
