BSX Experiment Authorisation Guide
To ensure experiments are conducted in a safe manner and according to regulatory and ANSTO requirements, it is important that the Experimental Authorisation (EA) form is completed in detail. This helps the Beamline and Lab staff to understand your requirements during your beamtime and ensures the safety of everyone involved. Please follow the instructions below when completing your EA.
Cloning Your Past EAs
Been with us before, why start the EA process from scratch? If you have attended the beamline previously and are performing similar experiments, you can clone a previous EA form and assign it to your upcoming experiment by following the instructions below:
On the Home page of the AS portal, select Experiment Authorisations > Create and Manage
Find the past EA that you wish to clone from the list, the proposal number, beamline and experimental dates act as useful indicators. Once you have found the EA you wish to clone, click the plus button on the left to see more details.
Under Actions, you will see a button that looks like two pages (highlighted in red above), click this button to begin cloning your proposal.
You will be taken to a page with your upcoming experiments listed on it at the bottom. From the list of available proposals, choose the one you wish to assign the cloned EA to and the appropriate scheduled beamtime dates (some experiments are split into multiple allocations of beamtime, take care to pick the right one) using the dropdown menus provided.
Once you are happy with your selections, click create and this will assign the cloned EA to your upcoming experiment.
Update your EA with details for your current experiment, incorporating all relevant information requested below for the Samples tab, along with updated user/beamline details.
Completing a New EA / Updating a Past EA
Please follow the pointers below to assist you in answering questions in the EA that require detailed descriptions of your team, samples and experimental plans. The beamline team will be looking for all of this information and if it is not provided your EA will be rejected and the missing information requested.
Users Tab
Number of attending users - If your beamtime is for >24 hours, ensure that at least 3 experimental attendees are listed on the EA and if your beamtime is for 24 hours at least 2 attending users must be listed on the EA. The synchrotron expects adequate staffing to handle fatigue during night shifts and over long experiments and EAs may not be approved if adequate staffing cannot be provided to ensure the safety of users and equipment.
Senior attending user - At least one member of the attending team should be a senior member of the user group laboratory (e.g., post doc, group leader etc.). EAs may not be approved if all attendees are students, particularly where senior lab members were listed as attending on the associated proposals.
Spokesperson - The senior attending user should be listed as the spokesperson on the EA. Ensure that the experiment spokesperson will be onsite/in proximity to the synchrotron for the entire duration of the experiment. The spokesperson should have adequate knowledge of all samples and experiments to be performed to be able to respond in the event of an emergency on the beamline.
Contact phone number - The beamline team should be able to reach the spokesperson through contact phone number provided throughout the experiment and after the experiment.
All online safety training must be completed before an EA can be submitted, any users with incomplete online site inductions will be indicated on the Users tab. Beamline induction will be performed at the beamline on the first day of your experiment.
Samples Tab
Q1: Hazard matrix
Please tick boxes for all hazards flagged in your sample spreadsheet.
If any chemical or biological hazards are ticked, do not tick the “No Hazard” box.
Q5: BSX Experiment Setup Table Upload
Complete the BSX experiment setup table (available at this link) and upload the pdf generated at this question.
If you have not discussed this particular experiment with any of the BSX team, indicate this by selecting “noone” when you are asked with whom you have discussed the experimental design.
Q7: Describe in detail any hazards selected above and any safety procedures used to control the associated risks, considering also any information in relevant (M)SDS's for the handling of hazardous samples:
Address any hazards outlined in the sample list. This includes the use of hazardous substances that may be supplied by the Synchrotron (e.g. Sodium Azide).
Include proposed risk mitigation and controls that will minimise any associated risks, including those associated with handling hazardous samples. Include details on all of the following where relevant:
Relevant PPE to be worn when handling hazardous chemicals
A full and detailed spill clean up procedure - do not refer to SDS, tell us directly what reagents and absorbant materials will be required to clean up spills
Whether dilution of samples for solution scattering experiments mitigates risks
How the release of hazardous gases will be mitigated if there is the potential for vapour release by chemical reaction/heating
Whether any scheduled chemicals need to be stored in the lock box in the chemistry lab
How will the hazardous substances be disposed of or will they be removed from site? Is there a dedicated waste stream in the onsite Labs? There is a dedicated waste container for solutions containing sodium azide that is provided by the beamline.
Please discuss with the BioSAXS team or contact the lab staff at as-labs@ansto.gov.au if you are unsure.
Q8: Sample spreadsheet upload
Provide details about all samples and reagents that you intend to use onsite.
The beamline team strongly recommends putting all chemicals you think you will bring/use while on site (whether from your stocks or ours) such that the EA doesn’t need to be modified later. This will delay the start of your experiment. Only chemicals on an approved EA can be brought to site but it is acceptable to have chemicals approved and not bring them.
This must include all samples as well as buffers or other chemical additives you may use. Also include chemicals that are provided by the chemistry lab that you will be using.
For any samples in the sample spreadsheet with an identified hazard, upload the SDS to the EA form using the upload button at the Upload SDS question.
For all samples with a marked hazard, ensure to include the relevant hazard codes (e.g., H301, H207 etc.) in the relevant columns of the sample spreadsheet.
Q9: Upload (M)SDS
For all chemicals marked with a hazard in your sample spreadsheet, please upload the corresponding SDS from which the hazard rating was derived.
Q10: List all ancillary equipment that is requested for the synchrotron to provide, e.g. fridges, centrifuge, oven, water bath, microscopes, etc:
Include any special equipment you will need that you are unable to provide yourself
The AKTA FPLC instrument in the Biochem Lab is available for users to prepare or clean chromatography columns. Please include this in this list so we can coordinate with the lab staff and ensure the instrument is available and all of your team are inducted for Biochem lab access during your beamtime.
For SEC-SAXS, users must provide their own chromatography column. Please contact the beamline staff (as-biosaxs@ansto.gov.au) if you are unable to do so.
Q13: Will the experiment as proposed use custom-made in-house produced equipment:
List any equipment built in your home laboratory that is designed to be:
Plugged into power outlet
Pressurised above ambient pressure
Has other inherent risk (e.g., high/low temperature, pinch point, rotating parts)
Q14: If Yes, please provide brief details of the equipment including e.g. pressure/temperatures the equipment is designed to withstand/be operated at, operating voltages, hazardous moving parts, etc.:
If answering Yes to the previous question, include specific details on hazards and operational requirements e.g., operating voltage.
Q15: List all other electrical and/or equipment that you plan to bring on site to the synchrotron. Note that all electrical equipment must have current safety testing and tagging:
List any equipment bought from a supplier (i.e., not home-made) that you plan to bring to site that is not a laptop or mobile phone.
Confirm that any user-supplied electrical equipment has been electrically tested and tagged at your home institution prior to coming on site.
Q16: Please outline any small quantities of common chemicals, solvents or other materials you may require the Synchrotron to supply to carry out the proposed experiment:
Water and ethanol will be provided in the Chem labs and at the beamline for cleaning
For Coflow experiments, sodium azide is commonly used as a stabiliser in buffers. The BioSAXS staff have prepared a stock solution (10% w/v) which can be made available to users should you require this to be added to your samples/buffer. If you wish to use sodium azide (up to 0.1%), please follow all of the requirements for buffers containing sodium azide. It is recommended to include this even if you may not end up using it. This will ensure it will be available on the day and you will not need to update the EA during your beamtime to add it on.
Glycerol can also be used to mitigate beam damage in coflow and is a less toxic alternative to sodium azide if it does not affect your particle/protein structures. If you wish to use Glycerol (up to 5%) as a stabiliser in your buffers, please follow all of the requirements for buffers containing glycerol.
Q17: Agreement to remove all samples/chemicals at the end of your experiment
This box must be ticked for the EA to be approved under one of the following two conditions:
1) If you can remove your chemicals and waste at the end of the experiment then it is expected that you will do so. In Q17 (experimental procedures) indicate that any residual chemicals brought to site will be removed and if hazardous waste is generated through which waste stream it will be disposed under Q6 (dealing with hazards).
2) If it is impractical for you to remove your chemicals at the end of the beamtime, contact the synchrotron labs team (as-labs@ansto.gov.au copying in the beamline team at as-biosaxs@ansto.gov.au) to explain why. Under Q18 below explain how your waste will be handled at the end of your experiment as agreed with the labs team. All arrangements to dispose of chemicals onsite or leave chemicals onsite must be agreed with the labs team prior to your EA being approved.
Q18: If you have made arrangements with lab staff to dispose of waste at the Australian Synchrotron:
If you are unable to remove your waste from site and have made an arrangement with the labs team that some or all of your waste will be disposed of at the synchrotron, outline that agreement here. The labs team check this section of all EAs so agree all waste disposal prior to completing this section.
Indicate how all waste will be disposed of, breaking this down into different waste streams for different samples e.g., “All solutions containing sodium azide will be disposed of through the azide waste carboy provided by the labs team. All other solutions are non-toxic and can be disposed of down the sewerage system.”
Q19: Upload additional documentation for experimental procedures:
Describe all experimental procedures to be performed on site, both in the labs and on the beamline, guidelines are below.
When describing your experiments on the beamline, include details about the sample environment you will be using and how you will use it.
If using Coflow, please stipulate whether batch mode, SEC mode or both modes are required.
If you are using Coflow in SEC mode, please indicate the type of column you will be bringing for your experiment, along with the nominal running flow rate and associated backpressure.
If bringing any user-supplied equipment, include a diagram/image of how the apparatus is to be set up on the beamline to ensure compatibility with our equipment.
If bringing any user-supplied equipment, provide written assurance to the beamline team that the apparatus has been tested in your home laboratory in as similar a manner to that which it will be used on the beamline as practicable.
Explain how your samples will be contained while being measured (i.e., within capillaries stored within the relevant sample environment, in 96-well plates inside the coflow autoloader etc.)?
If you have requested a photon energy that is not 12.4 keV, please justify why you require a different photon energy.
When describing your experiments in the chemistry/biochemistry labs, describe in detail any spaces/equipment you require and how you will use them. If handling samples/performing chemical operations describe them in detail.
Explain how your samples will be stored when they are not being measured e.g., in the chemistry lab, in the cabin, in a fume cupboard, on the bench etc.
Explain how your samples will be either disposed of after measuring or transported away from the facility after the beamtime is over? NOTE – it is expected that all waste will be removed from the synchrotron unless it is justifiable for the synchrotron to provide waste disposal. See Q15 guidelines above.