Turning the DIALS
Nicholas Sauter began working on DIALS (Diffraction Integration for Advanced Light Sources) in 2011 because he and his colleagues recognized that the experimental methods of X-ray crystallography were changing, and changing fast. To be usable, the software that automates crystallography experiments must be able to keep up.
So he and his team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and collaborating teams at CCP4 and at the Diamond Light Source synchrotron in the United Kingdom developed a modular system that allows new algorithms to be dropped in as new experimental methods and technologies emerge. Examples include handling data from faster detectors, like the Pilatus, handling new technologies, such as the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), and handling new types of experiments, such as putting multiple crystals in the beamline at …
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