From Brookhaven Lab: “New Microscope at Brookhaven Lab Promises Unprecedented Experimental Opportunities in Materials Science”

November 28, 2011
Diane Greenberg; Peter Genzer

“A new class of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic microscope has been developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. The microscope will be used for advanced research on a wide range of technologically important materials systems. This new class of microscope was invented by Raymond Browning, of R. Browning Consultants and funded by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) contracts. A prototype of the new instrument, a Vector Potential Photoelectron Microscope (VPPEM), has been built in collaboration with the NIST Synchrotron Methods Group at the Laboratory’s National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS).

[NIST Synchrotron Methods Group Leader]Dan Fischer (left) and Raymond Browning show off the prototype of the Vector Potential Photoelectron Microscope.

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

From Brookhaven Lab: “Model of Enzyme’s Structure Could Spur New Therapies”

Karen McNulty Walsh
November 6, 2011

“In many pharmaceutical company and university laboratories, scientists are looking closely at kinase complexes because the enzymes play key roles in essential cell functions. By taking unusual steps to examine a kinase complex, researchers at Brown University and the National Institutes of Health have found a sought-after prize: an unprecedentedly detailed description of its structure complete with a rare location on its structure that could be a target for new therapeutic drugs.

‘Disregulation always leads to disease,’ said Wolfgang Peti, associate professor of medicine and chemistry at Brown University and senior author of a paper published online Nov. 6 in Nature Chemical Biology. ‘To make better drugs, what we want to do is look for individual things that are different between different complexes. The problem is we didn’t know where those non-common spots are. We didn’t have the structures that tell us the story. We were the first to get one of those structures.’

To determine the structure, the group took the rare step of combining techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering, using the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island. The result was the clearest picture yet of a MAP kinase complex, which turns out to measure a mere 108 Angstroms (tenths of billionths of a meter) long by 30 Angstroms wide. The resolution of their resulting model is on the scale of individual atoms.”

The p38alpha:HePTP enzyme complex, shown in two views rotated 90 degrees, plays a key role in regulating cell functions. Resolving its structure allows new possibilities for fighting diseases that occur because regulation goes wrong. Credit: Peti Lab/Brown University

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One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

From Brookhaven Lab: “A Material’s Magnetic Surprise Could Mean New Technologies”

By Laura Mgrdichian
August 28, 2011

“Scientists working at the National Synchrotron Light Source have discovered an unusually fragile, unstable magnetic state in a member of a class of materials known for its robust magnetic behaviors. Their discovery could lead to applications in the emerging field of spintronics – electronics based not on electric charge but on electron spin, a property that is very closely linked to magnetism.

The research was published on July 15, 2011, in the online edition of Physical Review Letters. It was performed by researchers from NSLS, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Pohang University of Science and Technology (Korea), Rutgers University, and the University of Illinois.

The layered structure of the bilayer manganite.

The material under study is a compound of the elements manganese (Mn), lanthanum (La), and strontium (Sr), and belongs to a family of materials called bilayer manganites.

‘We clearly demonstrate that the interplay among charge, orbitals, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom leads to exotic phenomena in these materials, said SLAC researcher Jun-Sik Lee, who led the study. ‘Moreover, this finding demonstrates the rich variety of spin couplings in these materials, which may be useful in engineering spintronic devices for our future.'”

See the full article here.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

From Brookhaven Labs: “Using Sound to Mount Microcrystals for X-ray Diffraction”

By Kendra Snyder
July 7, 2011

“Brookhaven researchers are using high-frequency sound waves in conjunction with extremely bright x-rays to get a look at the atomic structures of the complex biological molecules that make our bodies work.

Like a high-speed x-ray camera, a technique called macromolecular crystallography provides researchers with 3-D “pictures” of the arrangement of atoms in molecules ranging from enzymes to nucleic acids. This is done by making a crystal comprised of many copies of the particular molecule and then bombarding it with beams of high-intensity x-rays that diffract, or bend, as they interact with the electrons in the atoms of the molecule. These x-rays then hit a detector, and are analyzed with a computer program to determine the atomic-level image. Knowing the molecule’s structure provides information about its function, which may lead to important clues about how to create effective drugs to prevent or treat a disease.

‘ X-ray crystallography has transformed our understanding of biological processes,’ said Photon Sciences Directorate biophysicist Marc Allaire.
‘ Crystallographers working at Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source have determined the structures of numerous molecules, including those from organisms responsible for the common cold, Lyme disease, and AIDS, in addition to investigating how plants respond to environmental changes.’ ”

Brookhaven scientists and lead authors, from left, Marc Allaire, Allen Orville, and Alexei Soares in the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) ring building, now under construction at Brookhaven Lab. The research group’s work on acoustic drop ejection could improve macromolecular crystallography studies at the new facility.

There is a lot to learn here. Read the full article.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.