A synchrotron radiation beamline in the photon energy range of 18 -240 eV and an electron spectroscopy end station have been constructed at the 3 GeV Diamond Light Source storage ring. The instrument features a variable polarisation undulator, a high resolution monochromator, a re-focussing system to form a beam spot of 50x50 µm 2 and an end station for angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) including a 6-degrees-of-freedom cryogenic sample manipulator. The beamline design and its performance allow for a highly productive and precise use of the ARPES technique at an energy resolution of 10 -15 meV for fast k-space mapping studies with a photon flux up to 2 • 10 13 ph/sec and well below 3 meV for high resolution spectra.

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The development of versatile bioactive surfaces able to emulate in vivo conditions is of enormous importance to the future of cell and tissue therapy. Tuning cell behaviour on two-dimensional surfaces so that the cells perform as if they were in a natural three-dimensional tissue represents a significant challenge, but one that must be met if the early promise of cell and tissue therapy is to be fully realised. Due to the inherent complexities involved in the manufacture of biomimetic three-dimensional substrates, the scaling up of engineered tissue-based therapies may be simpler if based upon proven two-dimensional culture systems. In this work, we developed new coating materials composed of the self-assembling peptide amphiphiles (PAs) C 16 G 3 RGD (RGD) and C 16 G 3 RGDS (RGDS) shown to control cell adhesion and tissue architecture while avoiding the use of serum. When mixed with the C 16 ETTES diluent PA at 13 : 87 (mol mol À1) ratio at 1.25 Â 10 À3 M, the bioactive PAs were shown to support optimal adhesion, maximal proliferation, and prolonged viability of human corneal stromal fibroblasts (hCSFs), while improving the cell phenotype. These PAs also provided stable adhesive coatings on highly-hydrophobic surfaces composed of striated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), significantly enhancing proliferation of aligned cells and increasing the complexity of the produced tissue. The thickness and structure of this highly-organised tissue were similar to those observed in vivo, comprising aligned newly-deposited extracellular matrix. As such, the developed coatings can constitute a versatile biomaterial for applications in cell biology, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine requiring serum-free conditions.

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Beamline I22 at Diamond Light Source is dedicated to the study of soft-matter systems from both biological and materials science. The beamline can operate in the range 3.7 keV to 22 keV for transmission SAXS and 14 keV to 20 keV for microfocus SAXS with beam sizes of 240 µm × 60 µm [full width half-maximum (FWHM) horizontal (H) × vertical (V)] at the sample for the main beamline, and approximately 10 µm × 10 µm for the dedicated microfocusing platform. There is a versatile sample platform for accommodating a range of facilities and user-developed sample environments. The high brilliance of the insertion device source on I22 allows structural investigation of materials under extreme environments (for example, fluid flow at high pressures and temperatures). I22 provides reliable access to millisecond data acquisition timescales, essential to understanding kinetic processes such as protein folding or structural evolution in polymers and colloids.