The biosafety level-2 macromolecular crystallography beamline (BL10U2) at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility

BL10U2 is an undulator-based macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamline located at the 3.5-GeV Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. BL10U2 is specifically designed for conducting routine and biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) MX experiments utilizing high-flux tunable X-rays with energies from 7 to 18 keV, providing a beam spot size of 20 µm (horizontal) × 10 µm (vertical) at the sample point. Certification by the Shanghai Pudong Municipal Health Commission confirmed the capability to perform BSL-2 MX experiments. The beamline is currently equipped with an Eiger X 16 M detector and two newly developed in-house high-precision diffractometers that can be switched to perform conventional or in situ crystal diffraction experiments. An automatic sample changer developed in-house allows fast sample exchange in less than 30 s, supporting high-throughput MX experimentation and rapid crystal screening. Data collection from both the diffractometer and detector was controlled by an in-house developed data collection software (Finback) with a user-friendly interface for convenient operation. This study presents a comprehensive overview of the facilities, experimental methods, and performance characteristics of the BL10U2 beamline.