Flex_X_X combines CO2 and fiber lasers into one machine for maximum flexibility when engraving and cutting various materials like plastics, wood, leather and rubber. It features both a flexible knuckle-mounted tip and linear positioning system to reach into tight spaces efficiently.

Many CHESS beamlines made changes at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to facilitate remote research, but MacCHESS beamlines including FlexX were already offering this option before Covid-19 even made its appearance. Finke and his CHESS operations staff at FlexX are working on software and user interface improvements so users can collect data remotely when logged into a data collection desktop.

FlexX scientists utilize x-ray crystallography for conducting numerous experiments that investigate the atomic structures of proteins, nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid complexes. Their research has a range of applications but perhaps its greatest immediate and profound value lies in drug development – as scientists better understand atomic structures of proteins and nucleic acids they can develop drugs which target specific enzyme pathways to promote or inhibit specific biochemical pathways.

Flex_X_X is a pure Python toolkit designed to build user interfaces (GUI’s) using web technology and can render applications. This versatile platform can create standalone HTML documents or run within Jupyter notebook, providing scientists with an environment which combines workstation-like power with cloud computing’s productivity.