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Our Philosophy

The mission of IMCA-CAT is accelerate drug discovery

by operating a synchrotron-based structural biology research facility

serving the pharmaceutical industry.

IMCA-CAT aims to accelerate drug discovery research by developing and operating a state-of-the-art, industry-funded structural biology synchrotron beamline optimized for high-throughput macromolecular crystallography serving the pharmaceutical industry.

Pharmaceutical companies, via IMCA membership or IMCA-CAT subscription, benefit from guaranteed, frequent, and routine access to the beamline for X-ray diffraction data collection.

Our professional staff ensure that the IMCA-CAT facility performs to the highest standards for quality, reliability, efficiency, and productivity, while providing outstanding service for data acquisition, comprehensive security for confidentiality and protection of proprietary data, and expert support for challenging experiments.

IMCA-CAT partners with the pharmaceutical industry members of IMCA to drive innovation and sustain cutting-edge operations, thereby distinguishing the beamline as a cost-effective and world-class facility for pharmaceutical research.

Values
Quality

IMCA-CAT provides an outstanding research environment that generates the highest quality macromolecular crystallography data from the most challenging protein crystals, while providing the pharmaceutical industry with the best data protection and data security for confidential and proprietary structural biology experiments that support industrial drug discovery research.

  • Collect high quality data from small, weakly diffracting crystals by using fully focused beam and selectable mini beam apertures.
  • Solve challenging structures, including membrane proteins and large macromolecular assemblies.
  • Work with highly skilled, experienced, and talented staff.
Efficiency

IMCA-CAT is committed to automating the full spectrum of tasks and decision-making steps of data collection and processing, thereby eliminating the need for manual intervention by the researcher.

  • Accurately center the smallest crystals in auto mode using diffraction rastering.
  • Successfully collect data from radiation-sensitive samples using vector data collection.
  • Integrate with company-based pipelines by downloading your proprietary data on-the-fly with high-speed, secure, and encrypted transfer protocol.
Reliability

Beamline 17-ID operates continuously, providing frequent, routine, and uninterrupted access for data collection and data processing to meet the demands of the pharmaceutical industry.

  • Positional feedback enables the most stable X-ray mini beam.
  • State-of-the-art equipment for maintaining peak performance and measuring the highest quality data.
  • Security for confidential and proprietary data collection and processing.
Productivity

At IMCA-CAT, researchers can achieve astonishing data acquisition rates. State-of-the-art equipment is maintained at peak performance to maximize productivity for structure-aided drug discovery programs.

  • The beamline operates at one of the highest throughput rates, with annual yields of more than 15,000 structures solved.
  • Accurately center the smallest crystals using diffraction rastering. Successfully collect data from radiation-sensitive crystals using vector data collection.
  • High-throughput combined with the full-cost-recovery operating model result in the lowest costs per data set for synchrotron-based diffraction data.
Sustainability

The IMCA-CAT facility, maintained at the technical forefront for pharmaceutical structure-based drug discovery, is readily accessible for proprietary research.

  • Rapid access beam time is available within one week of request.
  • Collect data on-site, remotely, or via mail-in service.
  • Guaranteed, frequent, and routine access meets pharma needs for data-on-demand.
  • Customize service to meet your needs.