Operational policy for external user access to the 

Macromolecular Crystallography Unit X-ray Diffraction Facility

Division of Experimental Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Harvard Institutes of Medicine, 4 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA 02115

The Macromolecular Crystallography Unit is located on the third floor of the Harvard Institutes of Medicine, in the Division of Experimental Medicine (DEM) at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The facility currently comprises a Rigaku rotating anode X-ray generator, an R-Axis IV imaging plate detector system, a Molecular Structure Corporation X-Stream low temperature device and networked Silicon Graphics workstations. The fraction of non-scheduled time for the Unit’s X-ray diffraction facility is potentially available to external users, subject to certain conditions and fees described herein:

1.   Any researcher from outside the Division of Experimental Medicine (DEM) of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that is not currently involved in a direct collaboration with researchers within the Division, shall be considered as an external user with regard to access to the DEM X-ray diffraction facility.

2.  The granting of temporary access to the DEM X-ray diffraction facility to a fee-paying external user does not in itself imply any scientific collaboration between the user and the DEM or any of its staff.

3.   The DEM reserves the right  to terminate the allocated access period at any time, without any further obligation or responsibility to the external user, and for any reason that it deems fit to do so.

4.   Only non-scheduled time on the DEM X-ray diffraction facility, defined as time that cannot be used by DEM staff and their collaborators, will potentially be available to external users upon request, and then solely for the purposes of single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments.

5.    Access to the DEM X-ray diffraction facility should be requested in writing to the DEM diffraction facility committee, consisting of Dr Jerome Groopman, Chief of the Division of Experimental Medicine, Dr John Ladias, Director of the Division’s Macromolecular Crystallography Unit and Dr Gordon Webster. All applications should be accompanied by a signed copy of this document for  each visiting, external user showing that they have read and agreed to all of the rules and conditions described herein.

6.   Issues of publication co-authorship and/or acknowledgements must be clarified before the access period is granted to external users by the DEM, as must any issues of equipment loans and/or financial remuneration that may result from the DEM granting the external user access to the X-ray diffraction facility.

7.   The fees for access to the DEM X-ray diffraction facility are currently $500 per day or $3000 for a continuous 7-day period. These fees are subject to review and alteration as the DEM diffraction facility committee deems necessary.

8.   Since the DEM X-ray diffraction facility is not a core facility, the granting of access to it for fee-paying external users, does not imply any current or future obligation on the part of the DEM towards the external user, nor does it imply any access to further DEM resources and/or personnel.

9.   External users who request access to the facility to use the non-scheduled time, must be prepared to start their allocated time with as little as 7 days advance notice. No more than one month’s notice will be given under normal circumstances

10. Only suitably qualified and experienced researchers, as determined by the DEM diffraction facility committee, will be granted access to the facility. The committee reserves the right to set these criteria itself and to alter them and/or the status of any external user with respect to them, at any time.

11. All external users will be subject to the safety regulations currently in force at the DEM, irrespective of the regulations in force at the external user’s home institution. Any dangerous samples, reagents and/or procedures to be used must be fully described in the initial request for access. Failure to disclose this information will result in cancellation of any pending period of access or of automatic termination of any period of access already in progress.

12. Access to the DEM X-ray facility will give the external user physical access to the suite of rooms 303-306 on the 3^rd floor of the HIM building. No access to other areas of the DEM is implied although permission for this may be given at the discretion of the DEM Division Chief, Dr Groopman, if necessary.

13. External users will be given a temporary code for the door to the DEM X-ray suite. Access to the DEM X-ray suite is strictly limited to those external users for whom access was requested in the initial application and who have signed this agreement. Under no circumstances should this access code be disclosed to any other party.

14. The DEM wil provide external users with the use of the X-ray generator system, the R-Axis IV image-plate detector, the X-Stream low temperature system, the associated computer hardware and software including network access and within the X-ray suite only, microscopes and laboratory bench space for the preparation of samples. In addition, an area of disk storage space commensurate with the user’s needs will be made available for the purposes of data collection and/or processing. All other equipment, reagents and materials necessary for the diffraction experiments must normally be provided by the external user.

15. External users may not re-configure any of the basic operating parameters for the equipment that they use in the X-ray diffraction suite (or in any other DEM area to which they might have access) without the permission of, and under the direct supervision of, the responsible DEM staff member. This includes, but is not limited to, the X-ray beam focus, the mirror optics, the collimator and detector alignments and the safety override switch on the radiation safety enclosure.

16. External users must enter the details of all of their experiments in the DEM X-ray facility log book, taking care to note the settings and current status of the equipment being used as well as any technical problems that may occur.

17. Whilst the DEM staff will try to ensure that the allocated access period can be used to fullest possible extent by the external user, the DEM accepts no responsibility for the loss of samples, data or other materials as a result of any interruption of the access period due to technical or other problems.

18. Since the DEM X-ray diffraction facility is not a core facility, no technical support beyond the basic operating and safety requirements will normally be given. External users who choose to work in the facility outside of normal working hours, do so at their own risk.

19. At the end of the allocated access period, it is the responsibility of the external user to remove all samples, reagents, equipment and other materials that he/she may have brought into the facility and to leave the X-ray diffraction suite exactly as it was at the beginning of the period of access.

20. At the end of the allocated access period, any data stored on DEM computer systems must immediately be archived onto suitable media (supplied by the external user) or transferred to the external user’s own system via the network. The DEM reserves the right to erase any of the external user’s data from its computer systems upon completion of the allocated access period. The DEM accepts no responsibility for loss or damage to the external user’s data resulting from any activity during a period of access to the DEM X-ray diffraction facility. Only by prior agreement with the responsible DEM staff member, may any external user leave data on any DEM computer system after the end of the access period, and even then, no agreement of this kind implies any responsibility or obligation on the part of the DEM with respect to that data. External users who leave data on DEM computer systems, do so entirely at their own risk.

21. External users will be held entirely responsible for any of their own losses and/or damage that may result during the allocated access period, as well as for any losses and damage that may be caused to DEM property.

I have read and understood the rules and conditions described in this document and in signing this document, I agree to be bound by them.