Small-angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) is a powerful tool to unravel protein dynamics, flexibility, ensemble conformation, and heterogeneity. It has been widely applied to structural biology in the past decades. The SAXS profiles of intrinsically disordered proteins, protein oligomers, and dynamic protein-protein interactions have been presented in many peer-reviewed publications.

We visited the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center (NSRRC) on August 18 for our first SAXS experiments. The national research facility constructed a beamline station 13A to provide biologists for the SAXS experiments. The BioSAXS is located at Taiwan Photon Source 13A station.

With the great assistance of the manager, Dr. Y. Yeh, we subjected multiple proteins to collect our high-quality SAXS profile on the BioSAXS station. The first-ever experience was very satisfying; we learned many sample preparation tricks. We look forward to deriving the ensemble of our flexible proteins using the collected data. We also began to prepare more samples to collect their SAXS profiles. Combining the NMR, X-ray crystallography, and cryo-EM techniques established in the KPWu’s group, we are highly excited to unravel the structural details regarding transient interactions, dynamics, complex formation, and 3D structures.