FIP: a highly automated beamline for multiwavelength anomalous diffraction experiments

FIP is a French Collaborating Research Group (CRG) beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) dedicated exclusively to crystallography of biological macromolecules, with a special emphasis on multiwavelength anomalous diffraction data collection in the 0.7-1.81 Å wavelength range. The optics, consisting of long cylindrical grazing-angle mirrors associated with a cryocooled double-crystal monochromator, delivers an optimal beam in the corresponding energy range. The high level of automation, which includes automated crystal centring, automated data-collection management and data processing, makes the use of this beamline very easy. This is illustrated by the large number of challenging structures that have been solved since 1999.