ELI Beamlines facility as a new promising tool for structural studies of macromolecules

Tomáš Polívka

Department of Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Sciences, University of South Bohemia

Knowledge of structure and dynamics of molecular systems is the prerequisite for understanding of function. While static structures of molecules are usually obtained from methods like X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopies, information about dynamics is typically obtained from various forms of time-resolved spectroscopies. Yet, the past decade has witnessed development of new experimental approaches combining ultrafast time resolution with detailed structural information. These methods are usually based on ‘standard’ time resolved methods, but ultrashort X-ray pulses are used for probing the structure of the studied system. One of the main obstacles preventing further development of these methods is lack of equipment producing sufficiently bright and short X-ray pulses at higher repetition rates. The Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) facility whose Czech pillar ELI Beamlines is being built near Prague, holds promise to meet requirements for experiments probing time-resolved structural dynamics. This contribution will provide overview of the ELI Beamlines facility and will discuss various options which this facility offers to study biological systems.