Plan Your Experiment

When preparing for your upcoming beamtime, it is good practice to prioritze your time according to your objectives. Synchrotron beamtime can be unpredictable, so plan to complete your most critical experiments early in your beamtime before moving on to lower priority measurements.

Learn about the Beamline

Before your beamtime, visit the beamline website and review their User Manual. Contact beamline staff in advance if you have any questions.

Team Membership

Any individuals participating in experiments during your beamtime must be listed as team members on your project in the User Portal. 

How to Manage Your Project

Complete required training

All participating team members must complete all required training modules for Facility Access ahead of time, if possible. Contact beamline staff to arrange a Beamline Specific Orientation for any new team members, or if your BSO has expired. 

Samples

Any samples, materials, or equipment that you plan to bring must be listed on your project and approved through safety and technical reviews for use at the CLS. 

How to Manage Your Project

Amendments should be submitted a minimum of 2-4 weeks before your first shift to allow sufficient time for safety and technical reviews to occur.  We cannot guarantee that amendments received outside of the 2-week period will be approved before your beamtime.

To view the laboratories and equipment available for use at the CLS, see Laboratories & Equipment. Please note that some equipment requires pre-booking. Contact beamline staff for assistance with booking.

Safety Review Process

Safety reviewers assess your samples, materials, and equipment, including sample handling procedures and waste disposal to ensure any risks associated with your experiment have been mitigated. During this process, you may be asked for clarifications from the reviewer(s).

  • You must provide an MSDS for all materials/samples identified as hazardous

Sample Shipping

Aim to have your samples on-site within no more than one week of your upcoming beamtime. Be sure to label your shipment clearly with your project number and the beamline where you will be performing your experiments. 

Shipping Information

Ethics Reviews

All research performed at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) that involves: human participants and/or research using human biological materials, derived from living and deceased individuals, or live animals and/or animal tissue or biological fluids from animals requires ethics approval prior to performing research at the CLS.

Ethics Approval Requirements

  • All Certificates must reference the planned use of the CLS facility.  If an ethics certificate already exists without the mention of the use of the CLS, an amendment to the ethics certificate must be made.
  • Unsure if ethics is required? Contact University of Saskatchewan Research Ethics Office:
Review of ethics documents may take several weeks.  Ethics approval for experiments involving live animals may take several months.

Sample Type

Requirements

Examples

Exemptions

Living human participants

Human biological materials derived from living or deceased individuals.

Valid Certificate of Human Research Ethics Approval from the UofS Biomedical REB and, if non UofS researcher, a valid Certification of Approval also from their home institute.
  • Living human participants
  • Human embryos
  • Fetuses
  • Fetal tissue
  • Reproductive materials
  • Stem cells
  • Blood, plasma, serum, DNA, RNA, proteins, cells, skin, hair, nail clippings, urine, saliva and other body fluids
  • REB review is not required for research that relies exclusively on secondary use of anonymous information, or anonymous human biological materials, so long as the process of data linkage or recording or dissemination of results does not generate identifiable information (Article 2.4, TCPS2 2014) 

Sample Type

Requirements

Examples

Exemptions

CofI Level A includes where animals are handled or killed for reasons other than the specific CLS project but their tissue(s) and/or bodily fluids are used serendipitously for the CLS project.

Animal Use Protocol (AUP) CofI Level A  is requested for animal tissues(s) or biological fluids from animals, where animals were killed for reasons other than the specific CLS project but their tissue(s) and/or bodily fluids are used serendipitously for the CLS project.

 

**CLS AUP #20090099 covers the use of various animal tissues and other samples. Samples utilized under this AUP do not require additional approval, however, must be listed and the AUP number entered for the associated CLS proposal.

 
  • Animal tissue (bone, skin, hair, waste, etc.) collected from and animal handled or killed for reasons other than the specific CLS project, e.g. at necropsy or from a slaughterhouse/ commercial vendor, or from another research scientist - animals previously killed as the result of standard commercial practices, including fish, or associated with other approved animal use protocols.
  • tissue culture developed from an animal handled or killed for reasons other than the specific CLS project
  • use of eggs, meat purchased from grocery store
  • embryos, larvae
  • Animal cell lines purchased from a commercial vendor (e.g. Ward’s Science) do not need ethics approval but do, however, need to be identified on the CLS proposal.

 

  • Samples obtained from the UACC Tissue Share Databank

CofI Level B or higher includes animal tissue(s) or biological fluids from animals which are handled or killed specifically for the purposes of the CLS project.

A valid Animal Use Protocol (AUP) Certificate of Approval is required for use of tissues or biological fluids from animals for research/teaching considered to be CofI Level B or higher.  CofI Level B or higher includes animal tissue(s) or biological fluids from animals which are handled or killed specifically for the purposes of the CLS project. A valid AUP is required from the University of Saskatchewan (UofS) or, if the researcher is not from the UofS, a valid Certificate of Approval from their home institute may be acceptable. In this case, the home institution’s certificate must be submitted to the UofS Animal Research Ethics Board (AREB) for review.

 

The AUP expiration date MUST be current during the time of the experiment.

 

 

  • Animal tissue (bone, skin, hair, waste, etc.) collected from an animal handled or killed specifically for the purposes of the CLS project

 

  • tissue culture developed from an animal handled or killed specifically for the purposes of the CLS project
  • None

Sample Type

Requirements

Examples

Exemptions

Live Animals
(CofI B through E)
  • A valid Animal Use Protocol (AUP) Certificate of Approval is required from the University of Saskatchewan (UofS) or, if the researcher is not from the UofS, a valid Certificate of Approval from their home institute may be acceptable. In this case, the home institution’s certificate must be submitted to the UofS Animal Research Ethics Board (AREB) for review. The AUP expiration date MUST be current during the time of the experiment.

 

  • Contact the University of Saskatchewan (UofS) UACC Veterinarian at 306-966-8081. The Animal Research Ethics Board (AREB) requires the presence of a UofS UACC Veterinarian to provide assistance with appropriate anesthetic and monitoring procedures.  The UACC Veterinarian must sign on prior to start of live animal experiments.
  • Animals - use of non-human vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) and cephalopods

 
  • None