Dr Armin Wagner
Armin is the Principal Beamline Scientist on the long-wavelength MX beamline at Diamond Light Source and Group Leader of Wagner Group. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Free University Berlin. He joined Diamond in 2005 from the Swiss Light Source where he had worked as a Post-Doc at the MX beamlines.
He is an expert for X-ray beamlines at Synchrotron Light Sources and has been responsible for the design, building, commissioning and operation of the first in-vacuum MX beamline for long-wavelength crystallography. This beamline covers a wavelength range beyond any other instrument for MX worldwide to offer unique and novel scientific opportunities.
In addition, he has made significant contributions to sample delivery techniques for both synchrotron and XFEL experiments.
Research Interests
MX Beamline Instrumentation
Macromolecular crystallography has evolved over the past year towards fully automated systems. However, for the most challenging projects, optimal conditions still need fine tuning and dedicated instruments. As Beamline Scientist on the microfocus MX beamline I24, Armin assisted in the design, construction and commissioning towards first user experiments of this very successful beamline. He then continued as Principal Beamline Scientist for the long-wavelength MX beamline I23. He designed this beamline as a unique instrument dedicated towards solving the phase problem from native proteins and nucleic acids without the need of labelling or prior knowledge of similar structures. The beamline is radically different to existing beamlines and required dedicated solutions to overcome the challenges arising from the long wavelengths needed for these experiments.
Long-wavelength MX
The long-wavelength MX beamline allows access to the absorption edges of light atoms such as Ca, K, Cl, S and P giving rise to strong anomalous contrast in the diffraction data from these elements. This signal can be exploited to solve difficult structure via experimental phasing techniques such as SAD and MAD and identify and locate these elements in X-ray structures. The main focus of Armin's research is to systematically investigate effects of X-ray absorption on the data quality and its potential correction to exploit the longest wavelengths available at the beamline and determine and provide the optimal recipes for measuring and analysing data from this unique instrument.
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-8995-7324
