At 10:24 a.m. on June 27, 2006, two x-ray beams from dual canted undulators drilled twin channels into a block of acrylic. The Life Sciences Collaborative Access Team ( LS-CAT ) marked its first step toward emerging as the newest structural biology sector at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory.

The LS-CAT is a member-based collaborative access team that includes the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, the Van Andel Research Institute, Wayne State University, Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The LS-CAT will operate four experimental stations for x-ray crystallography using two insertion devices. The first of the four will provide a highly tunable, focused beam using one of the insertion devices while the remaining three stations will split the beam from the second insertion device to provide fixed-energy (or slightly tunable) capabilities.