- Baxter, Elizabeth L;
- Aguila, Laura;
- Alonso-Mori, Roberto;
- Barnes, Christopher O;
- Bonagura, Christopher A;
- Brehmer, Winnie;
- Brunger, Axel T;
- Calero, Guillermo;
- Caradoc-Davies, Tom T;
- Chatterjee, Ruchira;
- Degrado, William F;
- Fraser, James S;
- Ibrahim, Mohamed;
- Kern, Jan;
- Kobilka, Brian K;
- Kruse, Andrew C;
- Larsson, Karl M;
- Lemke, Heinrik T;
- Lyubimov, Artem Y;
- Manglik, Aashish;
- McPhillips, Scott E;
- Norgren, Erik;
- Pang, Siew S;
- Soltis, SM;
- Song, Jinhu;
- Thomaston, Jessica;
- Tsai, Yingssu;
- Weis, William I;
- Woldeyes, Rahel A;
- Yachandra, Vittal;
- Yano, Junko;
- Zouni, Athina;
- Cohen, Aina E
Higher throughput methods to mount and collect data from multiple small and radiation-sensitive crystals are important to support challenging structural investigations using microfocus synchrotron beamlines. Furthermore, efficient sample-delivery methods are essential to carry out productive femtosecond crystallography experiments at X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) sources such as the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS). To address these needs, a high-density sample grid useful as a scaffold for both crystal growth and diffraction data collection has been developed and utilized for efficient goniometer-based sample delivery at synchrotron and XFEL sources. A single grid contains 75 mounting ports and fits inside an SSRL cassette or uni-puck storage container. The use of grids with an SSRL cassette expands the cassette capacity up to 7200 samples. Grids may also be covered with a polymer film or sleeve for efficient room-temperature data collection from multiple samples. New automated routines have been incorporated into the Blu-Ice/DCSS experimental control system to support grids, including semi-automated grid alignment, fully automated positioning of grid ports, rastering and automated data collection. Specialized tools have been developed to support crystallization experiments on grids, including a universal adaptor, which allows grids to be filled by commercial liquid-handling robots, as well as incubation chambers, which support vapor-diffusion and lipidic cubic phase crystallization experiments. Experiments in which crystals were loaded into grids or grown on grids using liquid-handling robots and incubation chambers are described. Crystals were screened at LCLS-XPP and SSRL BL12-2 at room temperature and cryogenic temperatures.