Diamond light source: status and applications in life sciences

Diamond Light Source is the UK's 3rd generation synchrotron radiation source which has been operational for 18 months. A number of operational beamlines are dedicated to Life Sciences including macromolecular crystallography and circular dichroism and biologists have access to other experimental techniques such as spectroscopy and solution scattering whose beamlines are shared with the physical sciences. Additional Life Science beamlines are at various stages in the construction process including, as part of Phase 3 of Diamond, a full field X-ray microscope dedicated to biology. To support the science on the beamlines we have biological laboratories adjacent to the beamlines around the periphery of the ring including the Membrane Protein Laboratory which is a collaboration between Diamond and Imperial College London aimed at providing facilities and expertise in the solution of membrane protein structures. In my talk I will present the current status of Diamond, focussing specifically on the provision for the life sciences, highlighting some of the results already obtained. I will end with a vision for the future of life science and synchrotron radiation. (author)