# BioSAXS

> **NIH NIH P30** · CORNELL UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $432,674

## Abstract

Project summary:
 The MacCHESS Synchrotron Source for Structural Biology facilitates the utilization of both
established and emerging technologies to advance biomedical research goals. Work performed at
MacCHESS is expected to yield fundamentally important insights into biology and biomedicine, adding to
the understanding of complex membrane receptor-signaling systems, the regulation of ion channels in
neuronal function, catalytic mechanisms of enzymes, and the complex macromolecular assemblies
responsible for gene expression. Upgrades to CHESS, including improvements to the storage ring and
newly designed beamlines that will provide state-of-the-art facilities, will be in place by June 2019.
MacCHESS will continue to support more than 100 investigator projects, funded by NIH and other
government institutions, through two major Technology Operations Cores. These are: 1) Facility for
Flexible Crystallography. The Flexible Crystallography Technology Core will take advantage of unique
MacCHESS capabilities to enable the development of new X-ray techniques that may be used to broaden
knowledge of biological processes. Examples include continued development of methods for serial
crystallography, improvements in crystal handling techniques, the application of high pressure to crystals,
and analysis of macromolecular motions through the study of X-ray diffuse scattering. A high level of
support for more routine macromolecular crystallography will also be provided, to answer a range of
structural questions involving single proteins, nucleic acids, and macromolecular complexes, as well as to
provide valuable complementary information to the results obtained from the less standard types of
structural studies. 2) Facility for Biological Small Angle X-ray Scattering (BioSAXS). This technology
core will implement state-of-the-art hardware, software, and expertise to support the increasingly in-
demand BioSAXS technique. In addition to determining the shapes of proteins, nucleic acids, and larger
assemblies in solution, BioSAXS allows researchers to obtain information regarding global conformational
changes within macromolecular complexes (e.g. growth factor receptors, RNA-splicing complexes) and/or
the changes in their oligomeric states that have important functional consequences. This core will also
provide the necessary equipment and expertise for investigators interested in performing time-resolved
BioSAXS or BioSAXS studies conducted under high pressure. MacCHESS will provide a strong
Administration Core to support these activities and will continue to educate users, and the biomedical
research community, through a Training and Outreach Core. Collectively, these efforts will offer unique
opportunities to our users for pursuing some of the most challenging questions in structural biology and for
obtaining structure-function information that will ultimately highlight novel therapeutic targets and aid in the
development of clinical strategies for dealing wit...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10443679
- **Project number:** 5P30GM124166-04
- **Recipient organization:** CORNELL UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Richard Edward Gillilan
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $432,674
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-15 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10443679

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10443679, BioSAXS (5P30GM124166-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10443679. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*