The Minister of Education and Science has allocated funds for the construction of a new experimental line as part of the investment in the expansion of scientific infrastructure. The small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) beamline will stand in a new part of the synchrotron hall.

The project prepared by Prof. Maciej Kozak from the Department of Biomedical Physics at the Adam Mickiewicz University together with colleagues from the Department of Physics at the Adam Mickiewicz University and NCPS SOLARIS at the Jagiellonian University has been selected for funding by the Ministry of Education and Science. The investment grant "Construction of a test line for small-angle X-ray scattering" will fund the construction of a SAXS test line worth PLN 35 million. This will be the first SAXS line in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe dedicated to the study of biological molecules, polymers and their composites, surfactants, drug carriers, nanomaterials and new functional materials. 

Research conducted on the SAXS line will find applications in biological sciences, medicine (drug design), chemistry and material sciences, among others. The terminal stations will enable, among other things, analyses of the structure of proteins, viruses, nucleic acids and polymers. This research will provide knowledge about the molecular basis of the functioning of living organisms and the architecture of macromolecules. 

- The new research line coordinated by the UAM will complement the spectrum of research opportunities offered by SOLARIS and will specifically cover the area of structural research. As a result, the Centre will have in its research offer all three methods allowing structural research in biological and medical systems. In this respect, I am thinking of electron cryomicroscopy, which is already thriving at SOLARIS, the crystallographic line under construction and the line dedicated to small-angle synchrotron radiation scattering, said Jakub Szlachetko, Ph.D., Jagiellonian University Professor and Acting Director of NCPS SOLARIS.

The construction of the new research line will take approximately three years and will consist of a number of stages: assembly of the equipment at the front-end, construction of the optics and installation of the final station. The first scientists conducting their experiments on the SAXS line should arrive at the Centre as early as the second half of 2026.