2020同步年報

130 ACTIVITY REPORT 2020 The name plaque of TPS 13A Biological Small-angle X-ray Scattering Beamline was unveiled at the opening ceremony. TPS 13A1 Opened to Users After five years of planning, design and construction of the NSRRC and Academia Sinica, TPS 13A Biological Small-angle X-ray Scattering Beamline is finally completed. The official opening ceremony was held on November 18. Director Todd Lowary of Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC), Academia Sinica; Dr. Ming-Daw Tsai of IBC, Academia Sinica; Director Shangjr Gwo of Research Center for Applied Sciences, Academia Sinica, who is also a former Director of the NSRRC; Dr. Di-Jing Huang of the NSRRC, who is also a former Deputy Director of the NSRRC; Dr. Meng-Chiao Ho of IBC, Academia Sinica, and several distinguished guests and users were invited to unveil the name plaque of the beamline. During the ceremony, they shared with the participants about how the concept of this beamline origi- nated as well as the endorsement and investment from the Call for COVID-19 Proposals The COVID-19 pandemic has spread widely and rapidly worldwide. It has been continuously a significant concern since the first domestic case emerged in Taiwan, and now this public health issue has also been in the international spotlight since its outbreak outside Asia. It is desperate for researchers to look into the mutation and evolution of this coronavirus, so as to curb its infectious transmission and to develop precise medicine. The NSRRC provides excellent light sources, experimental techniques and facilities, which can be utilized to explore the struc- tural characteristics and images of the various organizations of coronaviruses, as well as to realize its interactions between the molecule and medicine. The NSRRC has perceived the urgent demand of beamtime for research into the disease and has offered rapid submission of “COVID-19 Priority Proposal” for this particular moment at the request of the administrative authority. The applications could be submitted any time and would be processed as soon as they arrive. The NSRRC would inform the applicants of the results and beamtime allocation after the quick review by PEC. The call for “COVID-19 Priority Proposal” was valid for six months from the day of announcement on March 18, 2020, and adjusted accordingly based on the research needs and the future development of coronavirus. One single proposal is used for one-time beamtime allocation, while the applicants may submit repeatedly in this period. All users demanding beamtime for COVID-19 research were encouraged to submit their COVID-19 proposals to ensure a rapid access to beamtime. IBC of Academia Sinica. The spokesperson of the beamline, Dr. U-Ser Jeng, expressed appreciation of efforts and contri- butions provided by the supervisors, users, constructers and beamline staff during construction and looked forward to the future output of this new beamline from users. This beamline provides the core experimental techniques of simultaneous SAXS/WAXS, time-resolved SAXS/WAXS, Ultra-SAXS and scanning microbeam SAXS/WAXS to users for academic research and industrial applications. It aims for advanced and general studies of biological structures and structural kinetics in solution or condensed forms un- der environmental simulations, from atomic to micrometer scale and from microsecond to minute time resolution.