Structural studies on living cells by conventional methods are limited to low resolution because radiation damage kills cells long before the necessary dose for high resolution can be delivered. X-ray free-electron lasers circumvent this problem by outrunning key damage processes with an ultra-short and extremely bright coherent X-ray pulse. Diffraction-before-destruction experiments provide high-resolution data from cells that are alive when the femtosecond X-ray pulse traverses the sample. This paper presents two data sets from micron-sized cyanobacteria obtained at the Linac Coherent Light Source, containing a total of 199,000 diffraction patterns. Utilizing this type of diffraction data will require the development of new analysis methods and algorithms for studying structure and structural variability in large populations of cells and to create abstract models. Such studies will allow us to understand living cells and populations of cells in new ways. New X-ray lasers, like the European XFEL, will produce billions of pulses per day, and could open new areas in structural sciences.

1 N F N and Physics Department University of Rome 'Tor Vergata' Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1 00133 Rome Italy

ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Molecular Imaging School of Physics The University of Melbourne Victoria 3010 Australia

Arizona State University Physics Department PO Box 871504 Tempe Arizona 85287 1504 USA

Center for Free Electron Laser Science DESY Notkestrasse 85 22607 Hamburg Germany

Center for Technology Transfer and Innovation Jozef Stefan Institute Jamova cesta 39 SI 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia

Centre for BioImaging Sciences National University of Singapore 14 Science Drive 4 Blk S1 A Singapore 117546 Singapore

Department of Physics and Astronomy Uppsala University Lägerhyddsvägen 1 Box 516 SE 751 20 Uppsala Sweden

Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron DESY Notkestrasse 85 22607 Hamburg Germany

ELI beamlines Institute of Physics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Na Slovance 2 18221 Prague Czech Republic

European XFEL Albert Einstein Ring 19 22761 Hamburg Germany

Institut für Optik und Atomare Physik Technische Universität Berlin Hardenbergstrasse 36 10623 Berlin Germany

Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics Department of Cell and Molecular Biology Uppsala University Husargatan 3 SE 751 24 Uppsala Sweden

LCLS SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory 2575 Sand Hill Road Menlo Park California 94025 USA

Max Planck Advanced Study Group Center for Free Electron Laser Science Notkestrasse 85 22607 Hamburg Germany

Max Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik Giessenbachstrasse 85741 Garching Germany

Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik Saupfercheckweg 1 69117 Heidelberg Germany

Max Planck Institut für medizinische Forschung Jahnstr 29 69120 Heidelberg Germany

Max Planck Institut Halbleiterlabor Otto Hahn Ring 6 81739 München Germany

MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology UCL Gower St London WC1E 6BT UK

PNSensor GmbH Otto Hahn Ring 6 81739 Munich Germany

Synchrotron SOLEIL L'orme des Merisiers roundabout of St Aubin 91190 Saint Aubin France

Ultrafast Coherent Dynamics Group University Oldenburg Carl von Ossietzky Strasse 9 11 26129 Oldenburg Germany

University of Hamburg Notkestrasse 85 22607 Hamburg Germany

Nat Commun. 2015 Feb 11;6:5704. doi: 10.1038/ncomms6704. PubMed

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