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The McCarthy team
The McCarthy team works on the operation, improvement, and automation of MX and bioSAXS beamlines, and studies protein involved in signalling and neuronal development.
AMBER postdoctoral fellowship project (final call)
PRISM: Platform for Robotic Imaging and Synchrotron Microscopy
ID30B, a jointly operated ESRF-EMBL beamline, is a high-throughput, fully automated macromolecular crystallography (MX) beamline that will soon be equipped with new instrumentation to extend its capabilities toward X-ray microscopy applications. The upgraded S-TOMCAT and I-TOMCAT beamlines at the Swiss Light Source provide an ideal environment for high-resolution X-ray tomographic microscopy. These beamlines offer stable, high-flux imaging with submicron resolution, well suited to biological samples.
PRISM (Platform for Robotic Imaging and Synchrotron Microscopy) builds on this foundation by placing precision robotisation at the centre of new, fully automated imaging workflows. The core of the project is the adaptation of the existing Flex robotic sample-changing system (Papp et al., 2017)—originally developed for MX applications—for the handling of X-ray microscopy samples. This approach replaces manual intervention with a reliable, continuous, and reproducible pipeline.
Development of the new sample changer system will take place at EMBL Grenoble, followed by commissioning at the ESRF ID30B beamline. The successful candidate will join the Papp Team (https://www.embl.org/groups/papp/) and collaborate closely with the CAD, mechatronics and software engineers of the group. The commissioning and deployment of the system at ID30B will be supported by the McCarthy Team (https://www.embl.org/groups/mccarthy/) and ESRF colleagues. A finalised setup will then be installed at the PSI I-TOMCAT beamline, headed by Marco Stampanoni, in collaboration with ARINAX. Biological specimens can thus be automatically loaded, positioned, and exchanged, ensuring consistent imaging conditions and enabling long, unattended acquisition sequences essential for large-scale studies. This robust automation significantly increases throughput while reducing errors and variability.
Artificial intelligence within PRISM complements this robotic backbone and will evolve progressively in sophistication. Initially, AI will support tasks such as monitoring data quality and flagging potential anomalies during acquisition. As the project advances, more exploratory applications will be developed, including intelligent feature detection to trigger adaptive tuning of experimental parameters, as well as increasingly autonomous optimisation of scanning strategies. These forward-looking capabilities build upon the strong, reproducible framework established by robotisation, enhancing PRISM’s performance without compromising reliability.
By combining high-performance beamlines with robust automation and progressively evolving intelligent tools, PRISM will transform X-ray tomography into an accessible, high-throughput, and future-ready platform for the life sciences, enabling studies at a scale and consistency previously unattainable.
Location: EMBL, Grenoble, France
Organisation: EMBL, Grenoble
Links
Read more about the McCarthy team at the EMBL
AMBER call in EURAXESS main call (starting point for application)