BioCAT is approaching the end of a nearly 3 year long, 2 million dollar optics upgrade project. This project was officially started in 2024 (though planning started earlier than that) when BioCAT received $2 million in supplementary funds from NIGMS to upgrade our x-ray optics to take full advantage of the new APS-U source and provide enhanced capabilities for users. We are now in the process of taking receipt of the new components, and have just received the final approval needed from the APS to proceed with the installation. Once completed, this will provide the beamline with smaller, more intense x-ray beams and improved beam stability. This will improve operations and data quality for all users, and let us offer significantly enhanced capabilities for microbeam work at BioCAT.

BioCAT will be operational as usual during the upcoming 2026-3 run that starts in September. We will start installing the optics in January 2027. During the installation and commissioning of these optics the beamline will not be available for users. We are doing our utmost to ensure a smooth completion of the project, but some downtime is unavoidable. We are currently planning on having no user beamtime in the 2027-1 run …

The Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT) at Illinois Tech operates the world-class biological small angle X-ray scattering and diffraction beamline 18ID at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory (near Chicago, IL). The facility is used by scientists and students from university, government, and industrial labs around the world. These groups use BioCAT to conduct research in areas from basic biomedical research to translational medicine.

BioCAT is seeking a Coordinator to support the operations of the facility. You will assist with budget oversight and purchasing, including but not limited to interfacing with both Illinois Tech and Argonne to make sure orders are processed and delivered smoothly, working with vendors to procure quotes and provide payment, verifying payroll, and tracking and reporting on actual and projected spending to the facility director. You will also maintain and update a record of all users of the BioCAT facility and their activities and help prepare reports for both internal and external use. The position involves other infrequent activities such as helping with hiring processes, assisting with administration of workshops and meetings, preparing communications for the user community, and other similar duties.The position is part time, benefits eligible, and can be either hybrid …

BioCAT is seeking a Ph.D. level scientist to lead the X-ray Fiber Diffraction Program at the beamline with a major emphasis on studies of striated muscle systems. This scientist will have primary responsibility for supporting Fiber Diffraction users at the beamline as well as maintaining the state-of-the-art sample preparation and sample delivery and characterization equipment. They will also collaborate scientifically with users and other beamline staff.

The full job description is here: BioCAT Fiber/Muscle beamline scientist job ad

Please contact Jesse Hopkins if you have any questions about the position.

Note: Dr. Weikang Ma, who has been running the fiber and muscle diffraction program, has moved into a tenure track faculty role at Illinois Tech and will be taking a small step back from BioCAT to run his own research group. He will maintain his position as Deputy Director and will continue to be strongly involved in the facility, but will not be as involved in the day-to-day beamline operations.

We are pleased to announce that the P30 grant that funds BioCAT has been renewed by the NIH and we are looking forward to continuing to serve this community and generate exciting science.

The full press release about this exciting grant renewal can be found here: https://www.iit.edu/news/illinois-tech-led-biocat-wins-nih-renewal-continue-operating-fiber-diffraction-beamline-argonnes

BioCAT held its eleventh intensive HOW-TO course in BioSAXS from 10/7/25-10/10/25 with 35 remote participants. There were four days of lectures and hands-on software tutorials on the basics of BioSAXS data collection and processing from expert practitioners in the field. Participants could elect to mail in samples for data collection prior to the course, and roughly a quarter of them sent research samples and were able to analyze their own data as part of the workshop.

Some of the participants and instructors at the Everything BioSAXS 10 Workshop.

BioCAT held its tenth BioSAXS training course from 10/7/25-10/10/25. There were 35 remote participants and 8 instructors. The workshop was held entirely online, via Zoom, for ~5 hours each day.

Day one started off with an excellent overview of the basic physics of SAXS and what kind of information you can obtain from the technique by Dr. Thomas Weiss (BL4-2 beamline, SSRL). This was followed by a talk from Dr. Jesse Hopkins (BioCAT) on the basics of SAXS instrumentation and different types of SAXS experiments. Following that Dr. Hopkins gave a lecture covering the details on what a scattering profile is and …

BioCAT offered its fourth MuscleX workshop from May 15-16 2025. This entirely virtual workshop had over 100 registered attendees.

BioCAT hosted its 4th MuscleX Symposium from May 15–16, 2025. BioCAT scientist Weikang Ma opened the symposium with an introductory presentation on the scientific missions supported at BioCAT, followed by a historical overview of BioCAT presented by BioCAT PI Tom Irving. The symposium featured 10 scientific presentations highlighting recent muscle studies using X-ray diffraction and other structural techniques. Of the 10 presentations, 6 were given by early-stage scientists and graduate students—underscoring a strong commitment to supporting the next generation of muscle researchers. With over 100 registered attendees and approximately 70 participants present live, the symposium fostered vibrant discussions, collaboration, and cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the BioCAT Town hall on January 10th!

We announced a lot of exciting new/upgraded capabilities. Some of that you can now find on our website, while others we’ll be updating shortly.

Perhaps the most important announcement is that BioCAT is resuming user operations this spring, with user beamtime available starting February 13th.

One announcement we don’t want to slip through the cracks is that Dr. Jesse Hopkins has taken over as BioCAT Director, while Dr. Tom Irving remains on as BioCAT PI.

For the beamline in general we announced:

1. 8x reduction in main horizontal beam size and 16x reduction in microfocus horizontal beamsize with APS-U.
2. A $2 million supplement from the NIH to upgrade our optics to take full advantage of the new APS-U source.

For solution SAXS, we announced:

1. A new customized HPLC system for SEC-SAXS and SEC-MALS-SAXS capable of simultaneously running a sample and equilibrating a column, with flow paths switchable at the press of a button, control software incorporated into BioCAT’s BioCon software, and temperature control from 4-40 C.
2. A new asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) instrument coupled to MALS and …

BioCAT is very excited to be welcoming users back to the facility starting in February. If you are interested in beam time next run, please contact the appropriate beamline scientist: Dr. Weikang Ma for muscle/fiber diffraction and Dr. Max Watkins for solution SAXS.

If you want beamtime, you can also check out our guide to applying for time.

A few key updates on how things have changed from before the APS-U dark period:

1. The APS has a new proposal system, called the Universal Proposal System (UPS). BioCAT users should put in either Standard General User Proposals (GUPs), which are good for 2 years and are the preferred proposal style at BioCAT, or Rapid Access GUPs, which are good for 1 run. For the upcoming spring run only Rapid Access proposals can be accepted, due to the proposal deadlines.
2. On-site users must request a dosimeter at least 3 business days in advance of their experiment in order to carry out their experiments.