Fast scanning SAXS on hydrated biological cells

During the last decade, the use of hard X-ray scanning SAXS as a cell imaging method has been pushed to yield structural information at sub-micrometer scales. As biological cells are weak scatterers, the best resolution is typically achieved for freeze-dried samples, while measurements on hydrated cells remain more difficult. The challenges associated to hydrated cells include not only reduced resolution and contrast, but also increased radiation damage and the need for more complex sample environments. In the proposed experiment, we suggest to examine hydrated cells in a dedicated sample chamber at the nanobranch of ID13, in order to collect data on local structural information in a highly spatially resolved manner.