We will hold a "First Science at the ABBIX Beamlines" meeting on Tuesday - Wednesday, April 21-22, 2015, pertaining to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored "Advanced Beamlines for Biological Investigations with X-rays" (ABBIX) Project. These three state-of-the-art beamlines are now under construction at the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS)-II facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Two of the beamlines are for macromolecular crystallography (MX), and the third is for life sciences applications of x-ray scattering. Visit this web site for further information and registration materials: http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/?w=ABBIXApr2015 Briefly, the MX beamline called FMX - Frontier MX - is optimized to address microbeam applications, and the other called AMX - Highly Automated MX - is optimized for highly automated throughput. The scattering beamline called LIX - High Brightness X-Ray Scattering for Life Sciences - will offer multiple modes of study. The MX beamlines view canted undulator sources, and the scattering beamline views a single undulator, providing world-leading brightness. Current plans are to conclude construction by the end of 2015 and start commissioning then. During the commissioning period, opportunities will arise to perform early experiments before the general user programs of the beamlines commence in 2016, and it is the upcoming meeting's purpose to explore and discuss scientific areas and opportunities on which early operation of the beamlines could capitalize. Note: Registration is required. There is no registration fee. Visit this site to register: http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/?w=ABBIXApr2015 Those who registered for the original meeting planned for January must re-register for the new occurrence in April. Contributed presentations describing experiments that exploit the capabilities of the ABBIX beamlines will be selected from submitted abstracts. The meeting will consist of both plenary and parallel sessions. The plenary session will begin with presentations on science topics in research fields that the beamlines are designed to address, followed by facility presentations to update the community about the early scientific capabilities at the suite of ABBIX beamlines and, in addition, of the Life Science and Biomedical Technology Research Resource (LSBR), sponsored by the NIH and the Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research (DOE BER). Two parallel sessions on Tuesday afternoon will focus on MX and x-ray scattering, consisting mainly of presentations that will address specific opportunities in these areas. These will be followed by two more parallel sessions on Wednesday morning, also focusing on MX and x-ray scattering, which will include contributions. If you wish to give a contributed presentation during one of the parallel sessions, please submit an abstract here: http://workshops.ps.bnl.gov/abstracts/default.aspx?w=ABBIXApr2015 The parallel sessions are designed to provide forums to facilitate more detailed discussions about potential first experiments at specific beamlines and the formation of the experiment teams. Specifically, each parallel session group will be charged to accomplish these goals: 1. Identify key research projects and the associated first experiments that may be performed at the suite of ABBIX beamlines, emphasizing those projects that will take advantage of NSLS-II properties and ABBIX beamline capabilities. 2. Facilitate the formation of research teams to generate first experiment proposals for submission. 3. Identify key additional team members in such areas as theory and analysis, ancillary measurements, and specimen preparation, needed to achieve the research goals. Confirmed invited speakers: Karen Allen (Boston Univ), Martin Caffrey (Trinity College Dublin), Seth Darst (Rockefeller Univ), Richard Gillilan (Cornell Univ), Wayne Hendrickson (Columbia Univ), AndrHoelz (California Inst Tech), Huey Huang (Rice Univ), Shenping Liu (Pfizer), Lee Makowski (Northeastern Univ), David Ostrov (Univ of Florida), Rebecca Page (Brown Univ), Anna Marie Pyle (Yale Univ), Christian Riekel (ESRF), Thomas Schneider (EMBL-Hamburg), John Tainer (Scripps Research Inst). We would like two outcomes from this meeting: (a) a concise meeting report outlining how ABBIX beamlines will help to address outstanding problems in life sciences, and (b) a list of potential first experiments along with the corresponding research teams. For more information on the meeting, please contact Sonya Kiss, at [email protected]. Note: Registration deadline is Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Organizers: Lonny Berman ABBIX Project Manager National Synchrotron Light Source II Brookhaven National Laboratory Sean McSweeney Structural Biology Program Manager Photon Sciences Division Deputy Director National Synchrotron Light Source II