DISCO is a VUV to visible beamline dedicated to biochemistry, chemistry and cell biology. The spectral region is optimised between 60 and 700 nm with conservation of the natural polarization of the light.

Three endstations are operated around a common scientific topic : Biomolecular investigations, with special emphasis on proteins, particularly membrane proteins:

  • A circular dichroism endstation in the VUV range which opens new fields in the investigation of biological molecules, with, in particular, the possibility to follow rapid kinetics such as proteins folding and unfolding in real time,.
  • An endstation for mass spectrometry of non-soluble molecules based on VUV photoionization with new opportunities for proteomics and photochemistry of hydrophobic molcules.
  • An imaging endstation for biological (living cells) and material applications with new possibilities of excitation and detection, also allowing biomedical investigation of normal and tumoral tissues moreover, new paradigms in autofluorescence diagnosis appear and "abandonned" molecules that fluoresce only in the UV can be used as probes.

Two endstations are always working in parallel, the imaging one and SRCD or APEX.

Beamline Energy Range
0.001 - 0.02 [keV]
Spot Size On Sample Hor
0.2 - 4000 [um]
Spot Size On Sample Vert
0.2 - 4000 [um]
Endstations or Setup

APEX

Description
APEX branch of DISCO beamline deliver VUV photons from 350 to 600 nm at inert atmospherical pressure (Ne or Ar gas).
This branch can be paired with an APPI (atmospheric pressure photoionisation) source for mass spectrometry analysis. This mass spectrometer is a QStarr pulsar i frome ABSciex society, its mass range go up to m:z 10000 with a resolution of 9000 in both ionisation modes.
Base Pressure
1 * 103 [mbar]

Sample

Sample Type
Liquid
Other Sample Type
Solid

Imaging

Microscopes
- TELEMOS : Full Field Axioobserver Z1 with PI YZ stage
- POLYPHEME : Inverted microspectrofluorimeter
Spectrometer
iHR320 excitation monochromator

Sample

Sample Type
Liquid

Manipulator or Sample stage

SRCD

Spectrometer
Circular dichroism spectrometer

Sample

Sample Type
Liquid
contacts
REFREGIERS Matthieu
JAMME Frederic
WIEN Frank
Techniques
Absorption
  • UVCD
Imaging
  • Fluorescence imaging
Ion Spectroscopy
  • Mass spectrometry
Disciplines
Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
Earth Sciences & Environment
  • Geology
Life Sciences & Biotech
  • Medicine
  • Molecular and cellular biology
  • Pharmaceutics (drug screening)
  • Protein and macromolecular structures
Physics
  • Dynamics
  • Optics
control/Data analysis
Control Software Type
  • Igor, MicroManager
Data Output Type
  • images, spectra, spectral images, temp
Data Output Format
  • tif, igor, ascii
Softwares For Data Analysis
  • FIJI, Igor, ImageJ, Huygens, CiDiPy