First industrial serial crystallography experiment on ID29

ID29 is an ESRF beamline jointly operated with the EMBL and dedicated to time-resolved serial macromolecular crystallography. Designed to exploit fully the ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source (EBS) upgrade completed in 2020, ID29 expands both the scope and the nature of macromolecular crystallography (MX) experiments.

To achieve this ambition, ID29 was entirely rebuilt into a world-first beamline dedicated to microsecond time-resolved serial crystallography. This unique instrument allows to capture molecular motions by observing time-dependent structural changes at room temperature and allowing biological processes to be visualised as molecular “movies”.

During the first week of February 2026, ID29 opened its doors to industry for the very first time. The ESRF macromolecular crystallography team welcomed leadXpro, a Swiss company founded in 2015 as a spin-out from the Paul Scherrer Institute located between Zurich and Basel.

With the aim of revolutionising drug discovery for membrane proteins — including GPCRs, ion channels, enzymes and transporters, leadXpro combines state-of-the-art membrane protein science with pioneering structural biology technologies such as Cryo-EM and XFEL methods. The company seeks protein-ligand interaction dynamics data to improve the structure-based drug design process.

By providing the opportunity to collect serial crystallography data using both solid-support and “tape-drive” delivery methods, ID29 offered a new way towards the success of the experiment.

In the picture, from left to right, the leadXpro team on ID29: Robert Cheng (Head of Biochemistry), Vivian Hermann (Senior research associate) and Hannah Glover (Scientist).

Robert Kin Yip Cheng, Head of Biochemistry at leadXpro, expressed very positive feedback:

“We would like to thank Daniele and the ID29 team for the excellent support, which made this a very successful beamtime. We were impressed by both the hardware and software setup, as well as the expert help available. Excellent crystals, cutting-edge techniques and strong teamwork ensured the success of this first industrial experiment. We will almost certainly be back.”

 “We are enthusiastic to have supported the first industrial serial crystallography experiment on ID29 together with such a great team. This marks another important step in establishing serial crystallography as an invaluable tool for high-throughput structure-based research”, added Daniele De Sanctis – ID29 Beamline responsible.

We look forward to welcoming leadXpro again at the ESRF in the future — and to further strengthening industrial engagement on ID29.

Text by Chiara Facoetti

Top image: the leadXpro and ID29 teams