A new approach that integrates data collection, data reduction, phasing and model building significantly accelerates the process of structure determination and on average minimizes the number of data sets and synchrotron time required for structure solution. Initial testing of the HKL-3000 system (the beta version was named HKL-2000_ph) with more than 140 novel structure determinations has proven its high value for MAD/SAD experiments. The heuristics for choosing the best computational strategy at different data resolution limits of phasing signal and crystal diffraction are being optimized. The typical end result is an interpretable electron-density map with a partially built structure and, in some cases, an almost complete refined model. The current development is oriented towards very fast structure solution in order to provide feedback during the diffraction experiment. Work is also proceeding towards improving the quality of phasing calculation and model building.

A novel and general approach to scaling diffraction intensities is presented. The method minimizes the disagreement among multiple measurements of symmetry-related reflections using a stable refinement procedure. The scale factors are described by a flexible exponential function that allows different scaling corrections to be chosen and combined according to the needs of the experiment. The scaling model presented here includes: scale and temperature factor per batch of data; temperature factor as a continuous function of the radiation dose; absorption in the crystal; uneven exposure within a single diffraction image; and corrections for phenomena that depend on the diffraction peak position on the detector. This scaling model can be extended to include additional corrections for various instrumental and data-collection problems.