What BioXFEL does

BioXFEL is the NSF BioXFEL Science and Technology Center, a non-profit research consortium established in 2013 and headquartered in Buffalo, NY, that applies X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) technology to structural biology. The consortium operates through twelve partner institutions led by the University at Buffalo, including Arizona State University, Cornell, Rice, Stanford, UCSF, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, the Hauptman-Woodward Institute, CFEL/DESY, and Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. BioXFEL serves academic researchers, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and undergraduates conducting structural biology research using XFEL methods.

The center's technical portfolio centers on serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), time-resolved SFX (TR-SFX), and mix-and-inject serial crystallography (MISC), supported by a proprietary software stack that includes Cheetah for hit finding and data reduction, CrystFEL for indexing and merging, OnDA for live monitoring, Psocake for graphical analysis, cctbx.xfel for crystallographic computing, Hawk for single particle analysis, and XRayView for diffraction education. The consortium also operates a HUBzero-based research collaboration hub providing beamtime proposal submission, a publications database (983+ member publications and 1,350+ PDB structure deposits since 2013), knowledge base, and community forums. Method diversification into single particle cryoEM was added in 2024.

BioXFEL's business model is non-commercial and grant-funded rather than revenue-generating in the conventional sense. Primary funding flows from NSF Science and Technology Center grant number 1231306, with governance distributed across the partner institutions. The consortium reaches its scientific community through annual international conferences (10th held in 2023), workshops, seminars, peer-reviewed publications, and channels including bioxfel.org, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and the BioXFELbb mailing list. Resources, training, and beamtime access are provided at no cost to users. Knowledge Transfer initiatives include a Corporate Affiliates Program and Museum Partners, and the organization pursues no patent monetization, M&A activity, or external equity capital.

Name

BioXFEL

Legal name

NSF BioXFEL Science and Technology Center

Website

https://bioxfel.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

BioXFEL is an NSF-funded non-profit research consortium applying X-ray free electron laser technology to structural biology, serving academic researchers and students across twelve partner institutions with proprietary crystallography methods and software tools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scientific Research Software & Structural Biology

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Testing Laboratories and Services (54138), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731), Laboratory Analytical Instruments (3826), Services-Testing Laboratories (8734)

akta.pro primary industry

Knowledge Management & Scientific Collaboration / Literature Intelligence (HLAGAJAN)

akta.pro secondary industries

Molecular Biology & Genomics Instruments (PCR/qPCR, Sequencing, Microarrays) (HLAGAIAF), Microscopy, Imaging & Flow Cytometry Instruments (HLAGAIAE)

Keywords

• Structural biology research
• Serial femtosecond crystallography
• X-ray free electron laser
• Scientific research software
• Academic research consortium

Headquarters

HQ city

Buffalo

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. NSF STC Grant Funding: BioXFEL is primarily funded through NSF Science and Technology Center grant number 1231306, providing sustained funding for research infrastructure, personnel, equipment access, and educational programs.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

BioXFEL is a non-profit NSF Science and Technology Center that operates as a research consortium providing access to X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facilities, open-source serial crystallography data analysis software (Cheetah, CrystFEL, OnDA, cctbx.xfel, Hawk, Psocake), training programs, and educational opportunities for academic structural biology researchers. The center coordinates research, beamtime proposals, and collaboration across 12 partner institutions to enable time-resolved visualization of molecular processes.

Product overview

BioXFEL is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center focused on applying X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) technology to structural biology. The organization operates a research collaboration hub (built on HUBzero platform) that provides access to XFEL resources, serial crystallography data analysis software tools (including Cheetah, CrystFEL, OnDA, cctbx.xfel, Hawk, and XRayView), publications database with 983 member publications and 1350 PDB structure deposits, beamtime proposal submission, and educational programs including undergraduate internships, graduate fellowships, and BioXFEL Scholars programs. The core platform also includes community features such as a knowledge base, Q&A forums, and wish list for feature requests.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• BioXFEL Research Hub A scientific research collaboration platform built on HUBzero technology, providing access to XFEL resources, publications database with 983+ member publications and 1350+ PDB structure deposits, beamtime proposal submission, educational materials, and community features including knowledge base, Q&A forums, and wish list for feature requests for academic structural biology researchers.
• Cheetah Data Analysis Software A graphical user interface and data processing program for hit finding and data reduction in serial crystallography experiments at X-ray free electron lasers, used by researchers processing XFEL structural biology data.
• CrystFEL Software Suite Software for indexing, merging, and evaluating crystal diffraction data from serial crystallography experiments, used by structural biology researchers analyzing XFEL diffraction data.
• OnDA (Online Data Analysis) Live monitoring and interactive hit-finding parameter refinement software for XFEL experiments, enabling real-time data quality assessment during beamtime runs.
• cctbx.xfel Crystallographic computing toolbox extensions developed at LBNL for XFEL data analysis, providing advanced crystallographic computing capabilities for serial crystallography workflows.
• Hawk Single particle analysis software for XFEL experiments, used for analyzing data from individual particles imaged at X-ray free electron lasers.
• Psocake Graphical image analysis software developed at LCLS for diffraction geometry, ROI histogram, small data analysis, peak finding, hit finding, indexing, and mask panel operations in XFEL experiments.
• CXIDB (Coherent X-ray Imaging Data Bank) Data archive providing practice datasets from LCLS for single particles and nanocrystals, used by researchers for training and method development in coherent X-ray imaging.
• XRayView Virtual X-ray crystallography laboratory software using interactive computer graphics to teach X-ray diffraction concepts including reciprocal lattice, Ewald sphere construction, and space group determination, targeted at students and educators learning structural biology.
• LCLS Serial Femtosecond Crystallography Data Analysis Resources Comprehensive documentation and tutorials for serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) data analysis at LCLS, covering beamtime preparation, data reduction, hit finding, indexing, and merging workflows for XFEL researchers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 983+ peer-reviewed publications since 2013
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• University at BuffalocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Lead institution hosting the BioXFEL headquarters and coordination hub. The University at Buffalo provides administrative infrastructure and serves as the primary contact point for the consortium.
• Arizona State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing researchers and expertise in serial crystallography and data analysis methods.
• Cornell UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing to the BioXFEL research consortium.
• Rice UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing researchers including George Phillips and others to BioXFEL research activities.
• Stanford UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing to the BioXFEL consortium.
• University of California - San FranciscocoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing to structural biology research within BioXFEL.
• University of Wisconsin - MilwaukeecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution with significant contributions including Marius Schmidt's lab group and machine learning research for structural biology.
• University of Puerto Rico - MayaguezcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing to education and outreach programs, including workshops for undergraduate students in Puerto Rico.
• The Hauptman-Woodward InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2013Partner institution contributing X-ray crystallography expertise, including researchers like Edward Snell and Thomas Grant.
• CFEL Science (DESY)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2013Partner from Germany contributing to the European XFEL collaboration and international research efforts.
• Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratorycoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2013Partner national laboratory contributing computational resources and expertise in data analysis tools like cctbx.xfel.
• Lawrence Livermore National LaboratorycoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2013Partner national laboratory contributing to the BioXFEL consortium research efforts.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• European XFEL: International XFEL facility in Germany with which BioXFEL directly collaborates via partner CFEL/DESY. Operates the same XFEL technology class and serves the same structural biology research community, making it a natural peer for parallel methodologies and user base.
• NE-CAT (Northwestern Collaborative Access Team): NSF-funded consortium providing synchrotron beamline access for macromolecular crystallography at the Advanced Photon Source. Directly comparable to BioXFEL as a multi-institutional structural biology access program serving academic researchers, though focused on synchrotron rather than XFEL.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory - LCLS: Operates the Linac Coherent Light Source, the primary XFEL facility that BioXFEL researchers use. BioXFEL depends on LCLS beamtime access; their collaboration is symbiotic — LCLS provides the instrument, BioXFEL provides user community, methodology, and software.
• RCSB Protein Data Bank: The primary public archive where BioXFEL's 1,350+ contributed structures are deposited. While not a competitor, RCSB is a directly comparable mission-aligned organization: a structural biology data infrastructure that BioXFEL outputs feed into and rely on for dissemination.
• GM/CA @ APS: General Medical Sciences and Cancer Institute Collaborative Access Team at the Advanced Photon Source, providing synchrotron beamtime for structural biology. Comparable consortium model with multi-institutional governance and competitive proposal access for crystallography research.

Regional players

• Diamond Light Source: UK national synchrotron facility offering macromolecular crystallography beamlines for structural biology. Operates in a comparable consortium/access model but serves primarily UK and European researchers rather than directly competing with BioXFEL's US-centric partner base.

Broad incumbents

• Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL): SLAC-operated synchrotron with significant structural biology beamlines serving the academic community. Provides competing crystallography capabilities to XFEL methods and shares overlapping Stanford institutional ties with BioXFEL's Stanford partner.
• Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory: Large DOE synchrotron facility where BioXFEL-partnered structural biology consortia (NE-CAT, GM/CA) operate beamlines. Provides broader X-ray-based structural biology infrastructure that competes for grant funding and researcher attention versus XFEL-specific work.
• NSLS-II at Brookhaven National Laboratory: DOE synchrotron with structural biology beamlines serving the same academic user base as BioXFEL. Comparable scale of federally funded structural biology infrastructure with proposal-based access for protein crystallography researchers.

Others

• HUBzero: The open-source scientific collaboration platform on which BioXFEL's Research Hub is built. Functions as an enabling technology provider rather than competitor, but its roadmap directly shapes BioXFEL's digital infrastructure capabilities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/bioxfel
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCfdbrtvFyIqyi01Vhw7L5GA
• Facebookfacebook.com/bioxfel
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/bioxfel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BioXFEL