Dynamic protein nanotubes for advanced applications

Dynamic protein nanotubes for advanced applications

A collaborative research team from Jagiellonian University in Poland and the universities of Leeds, York, and Durham in the UK have made a significant nanotech breakthrough by developing dynamic, pentamer-based protein nanotubes. The study, published in ACS Nano, reveals how an engineered enzyme can assemble into various hollow spherical and cylindrical structures in response to stimuli.

By leveraging the power of electron microscopy and mathematical modeling, the research led by the Azuma group at Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology (MCB) JU has unlocked the ability of a modified enzyme, called lumazine synthase, to form versatile and adaptive nanostructures. The protein shows an extraordinary capacity to morph between hollow spherical shapes and elongated, fiber-like nanotubes, all in response to salt contents in solution. Unlike conventional nanotubes that rely on hexameric or other subunit arrangements, these newly discovered assemblies consist entirely of pentamers. 
Thanks to the state-of-the-art Titan Krios G3i cryo-electron microscope, housed at the National Synchrotron Radiation Centre SOLARIS JU and the Polish high-performance computing infrastructure PLGrid (HPC Centers: ACK Cyfronet AGH), scientists have mapped the structures of these innovative nanocage complexes with remarkable precision.

This pioneering research provides invaluable insights into the molecular mechanics and geometric principles of protein assembly. The findings offer a fresh blueprint for designing nanoarchitectures with customizable shapes and functions, potentially revolutionizing fields such as drug delivery, catalysis, and the creation of advanced nanomaterials.

This discovery is thrilling, as it allows us to see and comprehend the various ways pentamers bind within these nanocages – says Dr. Łukasz Koziej, a leading researcher of the study.
Dr. Yusuke Azuma adds, This work is a promising step forward to pave the way for developing new biomimetic devices and materials with bespoke properties, marking a significant advancement in the field of nanotechnology.

Read more on SOLARIS website


Image: Electron microscopic structures of ball- and tube-shaped assemblies made from an engineered enzyme, lumazine synthase. Unlike many other cases found before, these structures are built entirely with pentameric (pentagonal) units. By simply changing the amount of salt in the solution, they can switch between forming balls or tubes.

Breaking boundaries in biomedicine: APS enables protein design

Breaking boundaries in biomedicine: APS enables protein design

From growth hormones to cancer drugs, small molecules play a crucial role in our health. Monitoring them is essential to keeping us healthy; it enables physicians to calculate dosages and patients to monitor their medical conditions at home, for example.

Monitoring small molecules depends on sensing where they are, and in what concentrations. While scientists have developed sensors to detect some small molecules, these sensors are used primarily in research and drug discovery and can only detect a limited range of molecules with particular qualities. There is a compelling need for sensors that can detect and signal the presence of diverse small molecules of different shapes, sizes, flexibility and polarity. 

Using artificial intelligence (AI), a team of scientists led by Nobel Prize winner David Baker at the University of Washington has created a computational method for generating proteins that bind and signal a wide range of small molecules with great effectiveness. Baker won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for computational protein design.

The research described here, published in Science and conducted in part at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), exemplifies that approach. The APS is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.

The sensor design problem

Creating a protein sensor for small molecules is very difficult. The protein must first bind to the small molecule, then signal its presence. 

The team solved both problems with modular design strategies. Their AI-generated proteins consist of identical repeating subunits surrounding a central cavity. The cavity holds a pocket where the small molecule binds.

The subunits, being modular, are easily disassembled. In this way, the small molecule binding proteins can be treated like Lego blocks and be connected to well-established signaling proteins (such as split green fluorescent protein, or GFP), to make a full sensing protein device. When a small molecule binds in the pocket, the subunits reassemble, which leads to the signaling module sending a signal that the small molecule is present.

First step: Binding

The team chose a diverse spectrum of ligands (molecules that bind to protein receptors to send signals between cells), including cholic acid, a biomarker for liver disease; methotrexate, a cancer drug, which requires regular monitoring; thyroxine, a human hormone that indicates thyroid conditions; and a cyclic peptide.

The scientists constructed a machine learning algorithm based on AlphaFold2 (a protein structure predictor whose developers, John Jumper and Demis Hassabis, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Baker) and other machine learning protein design algorithms to generate thousands of proteins to bind the small molecules.

After computational design, the team tested the designed proteins in the laboratory and identified binders to particular ligands, following computational design and using machine learning methods to choose the best designs for experimental tests.

To confirm the accuracy of their design approach, the Baker team turned to the APS. They used the ultrabright X-ray beams to collect data on the atomic structure of the binding proteins. Using the Northeastern Collaborative Access Team (NE-CAT) beamlines at 24-ID at the APS, the team determined the structures of crystals formed from one of the designed proteins. 

“Prediction algorithms are excellent tools, but without verification of the structures, there’s no proof that the predictions match reality,” said Kay Perry of Cornell University, staff scientist at NE-CAT. ​“X-ray crystallography remains one of the best ways to make that confirmation, and the team was able to do so in this case.”

Second step: Signaling

The next challenge was turning the binding proteins into signaling proteins. The scientists took advantage of their modularity to create two different types of signaling events. 

The team built ligand-induced dimerization proteins from the binders. Linna An, the first author of this study, said the technology can be used in many health-related applications, such as regulating the release of drugs in cancer therapies.

In a different type of signaling event, the scientists fused the binding proteins to a newly designed nanopore, a protein creating a channel allowing ion flow. The fused unit was constructed in such a way that when a small molecule blocked the binding pocket, the whole nanopore was blocked, preventing the flow of ions and loss of current. Loss of current signaled the presence of the small molecule. 

Read more on APS website

Image: The crystal structure of CHD_r1 (gray) is very similar to the computational design model (colored).

Credit: Linna An, et al., Science.

X-ray snapshot: How light bends an active substance

X-ray snapshot: How light bends an active substance

With the help of the world’s most powerful X-ray laser, European XFEL, a research team led by Goethe University Frankfurt and the research centre DESY has achieved an important breakthrough: Using the example of the pharmaceutically active substance 2-thiouracil, they applied a long-established imaging technique to complex molecules for the first time. Although 2-thiouracil is no longer applied therapeutically, it is part of a group of chemically similar active substances that are used today as immunosuppressants or cytostatics. The study shows how UV radiation deforms 2-thiouracil, making it dangerously reactive.

Many biologically important molecules change shape when stimulated by UV radiation. Although this property can also be found in some drugs, it is not yet well understood. Using an innovative technique, an international team involving researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt, the European XFEL in Schenefeld and the Deutschen Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg has elucidated this ultra-fast process, and made it visible in slow motion, with the help of X-ray light. The method opens up exciting new ways of analysing many other molecules.

“We investigated the molecule 2-thiouracil, which belongs to a group of pharmaceutically active substances based on certain DNA building blocks, the nucleobases,” says the study’s last author Markus Gühr, the head of DESY’s free-electron laser FLASH and Professor of Chemistry at University of Hamburg. 2-thiouracil and its chemically related active substances have a sulphur atom, which gives the molecules its unusual, medically relevant properties. “Another special feature is that these molecules become dangerously reactive when exposed to UV radiation.” Studies indicate an increased risk of skin cancer due to this effect.

To better understand what happens during such processes, the research team used an already well-established method, bringing it to a new level by applying the technical possibilities available today. “Coulomb explosion imaging involves irradiating a molecule with intense X-ray pulses, which knock out electrons,” explains Till Jahnke, Professor of Experimental Atomic and Molecular Physics at Goethe University and the study’s first author. “Thereby, the molecule charges up positively and thus becomes unstable, so that it is torn apart within fractions of a second.” By tracking the direction in which the various fragments of the molecule – the atoms – fly apart, it is possible to derive information about the molecule’s structure. 

Read more on European XFEL website

Image: The SQS instrument’s COLTRIMS reaction microscope was used to analyze the structural changes of the 2-thiouracil molecule at the European XFEL.

Credit: European XFEL

A New Way to Engineer Composite Materials

A New Way to Engineer Composite Materials

  • Researchers have developed a way to engineer pseudo-bonds in a polymer material.
  • Their work represents a new way of solidifying materials without relying on permanent chemical bonds.
  • Like an epoxy, the material serves as a strong and stable filler—but can also be dissolved and reused, as though untangling a ball of yarn.

Composite adhesives like epoxy resins are excellent tools for joining and filling materials including wood, metal, and concrete. But there’s one problem: once a composite sets, it’s there forever. Now there’s a better way. Researchers have developed a simple polymer that serves as a strong and stable filler that can later be dissolved. It works like a tangled ball of yarn that, when pulled, unravels into separate fibers.

A new study led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) outlines a way to engineer pseudo-bonds in materials. Instead of forming chemical bonds, which is what makes epoxies and other composites so tough, the chains of molecules entangle in a way that is fully reversible. The research is published in the journal Advanced Materials.

“This is a brand new way of solidifying materials. We open a new path to composites that doesn’t go with the traditional ways,” said Ting Xu, a faculty senior scientist at Berkeley Lab and one of the lead authors for the study.

Read more on the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab website

Image: Silica nanoparticles affixed with a distribution of polystyrene chains (purple) self-assemble into hexagonal lattices. Depending on how the chains are organized on the particle surface, they tangle together (purple) or unravel (blue) when compressed. 

Credit: Tiffany Chen; Ting Xu

“Vortion”, a new magnetic state able to mimic neuronal synapses

“Vortion”, a new magnetic state able to mimic neuronal synapses

Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) have managed to experimentally develop a new magnetic state: a magneto-ionic vortex or “vortion”. The research, published in Nature Communications, allows for an unprecedented level of control of magnetic properties at the nanoscale and at room temperature, and opens new horizons for the development of advanced magnetic devices. Controlling this state paves the way for the creation of more intelligent, reconfigurable and energy-efficient devices that mimic the brain.

The use of Big Data has multiplied the energy demand in information technologies. Generally, to store information, systems utilize electric currents to write data, which dissipates power by heating the devices. Controlling magnetic memories with voltage, instead of electric currents, can minimise this energy expenditure. One way to achieve this is by using magneto-ionic materials, which allow for the manipulation of their magnetic properties by adding or removing ions through changes in the polarity of the applied voltage.

So far, most studies in this area have focused on continuous films, rather than on controlling properties at the nanometric scale in discrete “bits”, essential for high-density data storage. Moreover, it is known that new magnetic phenomena can emerge at the sub-micrometre scale, that do not exist at the macroscopic level, such as magnetic vortices – small swirl-like magnetic structures. These vortices have applications in the way magnetic data are currently recorded and read, as well as in biomedicine. Nevertheless, changing the vortex state in already prepared materials is often impossible or requires large amounts of energy.

Researchers from the UAB Department of Physics, in collaboration with scientists from the ICMAB-CSIC, the ALBA Synchrotron and research institutions in Italy and the United States, propose a new solution that combines magneto-ionics and magnetic vortices. Researchers experimentally developed a new magnetic state that they have named magneto-ionic vortex, or “vortion”. This new object allows “on-demand” control of the magnetic properties of a nanodot (a dot of nanometric dimensions) with high precision. This is achieved by extracting nitrogen ions through the application of voltage, thus allowing for efficient control with very low energy consumption.

Measurements at the ALBA Synchrotron were carried out at the CIRCE-PEEM beamline, whose technique provides an excellent method to confirm the envisaged spin configurations of the vortion state.

“This is a so far unexplored object at the nanoscale. There is a great demand for controlling magnetic states at the nanoscale but, surprisingly, most of the research in magneto-ionics has so far focused on the study of films of continuous materials. If we look at the effects of ion displacement in discrete structures of nanometre dimensions, the ‘nanodots’ we have analysed, we see that very interesting dynamically evolving spin configurations appear, which are unique to these types of structures”. Jordi Sort, ICREA researcher in the UAB Department of Physics and director of the research.

These spin configurations and the magnetic properties of the vortices vary as a function of the duration of the applied voltage. Thus, different magnetic states (e.g., vortices with different properties or states with uniform magnetic orientation) can be generated from nanodots of an initially non-magnetic material by the gradual extraction of ions through the application of voltage.

“With the ‘vortions’ we developed, we can have unprecedented control of magnetic properties such as magnetisation, coercivity, remanence, anisotropy or the critical fields at which vortions are formed or annihilated. These are fundamental properties for storing information in magnetic memories, which we are now able to control and tune in an analogue and reversible manner by a voltage-activated process with very low energy consumption. The voltage actuation procedure, instead of using electric current, prevents heating in devices such as laptops, servers and data centres, and it drastically reduces energy loss.” Irena Spasojević, postdoctoral researcher in the UAB Department of Physics and first author of the paper.

Researchers have shown that by precisely controlling the thickness of the voltage-generated magnetic layer, the magnetic state of the material can be varied at will, in a controlled and reversible manner, between a non-magnetic state, a state with a uniform magnetic orientation (such as that found in a magnet), and the new magneto-ionic vortex state.

Read more on ALBA website

Image: Jordi Sort and Irena Spasojević at the UAB, next to the Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect (MOKE) magnetometer that was used for in-situ measurements described in the work.

The brilliant art amongst our stars

The brilliant art amongst our stars

On 15 January 2025, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida bound for the Mare Crisium basin of the moon—carrying with it 47 artistic creations, including MAX IV colleague Filip Persson’s artwork, ‘MAX IV Control System’. The art will be part of humanity’s galactic impression to live for millions of years.

According to Persson, his artwork represents a new genre of art with requirements yet to be defined. “The idea with the genre ‘Technical Art’ is that a sufficiently complex machine can create art by being run in normal operation. So, no deliberate special run in order to create the art. It can, for example, be instabilities or other things creating a beautiful pattern.”

The work, curated for the MoonMars Museum project, was created with Python and Gephi software. All devices of the full control system of MAX IV along with all interconnections were extracted as a huge table. The table was then imported into Gephi as a node network and evolved using gravitational parameters, creating beautiful patterns resembling galaxies—a bit like a Big Bang but with the very different behaviour that all information about the control system and the connections remain intact.

“I have over the years seen a lot of beautiful graphs at MAX IV and I thought quite early, due to having a somewhat artistic mind, that it would be fun to do something with these images,” explained Filip Persson, who is MAX IV’s Assistant Head of Accelerator Operations.

The artworks are packaged both digitally, on a very resilient memory card, and analogue as laser etched into a nickel plate using state-of-the-art Nanofiche technology with 300 000 DPI resolution. The art is part of the company LifeShip’s payload called ‘Pyramid on the Moon’.

How does one define technical art? The parameters are something that Persson aims to classify so that more people from around the world can contribute to the genre.

Read more on MAXIV website

Catching light-activated proteins in action

Catching light-activated proteins in action

Light is an important feature of the natural world. Many organisms have developed sophisticated systems to detect light and then convey signals to sensory systems that respond. This can be achieved through coupled systems that contain both a light-sensing chromophore and a protein that passes on the information via protein conformational changes to other domains or proteins in the system.

However, these reactions work on very fast timescales and not much is known about the structural intermediates that are involved. This information is important for understanding how these systems work and could be useful for applications such as the design of light-activated cellular sensors for research or medical treatments.

In a recent publication, a collaborative team from the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the Korean Center for Advanced Reaction Dynamics, and the University of Chicago reported on their findings from work conducted at the University of Chicago’s BioCARS 14-ID-B beamline at the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Their results provide new structural and mechanistic insights to further illuminate this process.

The research focused on a light-sensing protein from the common oat plant, Avena sativa, called AsLOV2, a member of a superfamily of light-activated proteins that contain the light-oxygen-voltage (LOV) domain. These LOV domain-containing proteins detect blue light in the visible spectrum and have a conserved structure composed of five β sheets and four α helices. When blue light activates the chromophore, a covalent bond is formed between the light-sensing molecule and a cysteine amino acid on the protein. This is hypothesized to lead to protein dimerization and other conformational changes that transmit the light signal downstream.

The team used time-resolved X-ray liquidography (TRXL), a sensitive technique that can detect global conformational changes in solution on a millisecond to microsecond timescale, to analyze the light-activated transition of AsLOV2.

The structure of interest for the work was a piece of the full-length AsLOV2 protein that contained the LOV domain and two helices, A’α and Jα, that are known to be involved in the light-induced dimerization of the protein and downstream signaling. The team used a mutant–type of the protein (I427V) that has a faster recovery rate than the wild–type (WT) protein, facilitating some of the measurements. Kinetic evaluation of the TRXL data showed that light-induced transition of AsLOV2 includes ground (G), first intermediate (I1), second intermediate (I2), and final photoproduct (P) states with associated time constants (WT: 682 microseconds [μs] and 10.6 milliseconds [ms], and I427V: 130 μs and 3.4 ms).

Read more on APS website

SLS 2.0: How to start up a particle accelerator

SLS 2.0: How to start up a particle accelerator

The upgrade of the Swiss Light Source SLS, one of the large research facilities of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, is moving ahead: the electrons are back now in the completely new electron storage ring. A report from the SLS control room.

To switch on a large machine, just pressing a button is usually not enough. And the Swiss Light Source SLS is quite a remarkable machine: an accelerator-based large research facility that will soon resume producing high-intensity X-ray light for around 20 experiment stations at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Thanks to the SLS 2.0 upgrade and a significantly slimmer electron beam, this light will be many times brighter and thus will enable better research than ever before. Now it is the beginning of 2025, and the facility is being awakened from its 15-month sleep. Step by carefully considered step.

“We tested the linear accelerator and the booster before Christmas and got them running again fairly quickly, which was encouraging,” says Jonas Kallestrup. He is an accelerator physicist who did his PhD at SLS, then worked at the Diamond Light Source in the United Kingdom for a few years and is now back at PSI since 2022. His main responsibility here is for the booster he mentioned: after the linear accelerator, this is the part of SLS that brings the electrons up to nearly the speed of light. From there they have to be brought into the electron storage ring. And from here, it gets exciting.

That’s because the electron storage ring, with a circumference of 288 metres, is brand new. As part of the SLS 2.0 upgrade project, it was replaced starting in October 2023. This means: a new vacuum tube within which the electrons can speed around almost undisturbed; a new, sophisticated arrangement of around 1,000 high-performance magnets along the ring, surrounding the vacuum tube to keep the electrons on their precise course; and new associated pipes and tubes, cooling systems, vacuum pumps, and a total of around 500 kilometres of cables to connect everything.

A landscape of number columns and diagrams

Kallestrup is part of the commissioning team, which these days is working with great concentration in the PSI control room in the building next to the SLS. Five to ten people typically sit here, some of whom were already part of the team when SLS was first commissioned in 2001. Eighteen large computer screens, each with a dozen application windows, are set up in a semicircle. Together they show a neatly arranged landscape of number columns and diagrams, enabling the team to keep an eye on the relevant parameters of SLS.

Masamitsu Aiba wrote his master’s thesis on particle accelerators 25 years ago. He later worked at CERN, and in 2009 he came to PSI. Now his specialty is injecting the electrons into the ring. “We’re about to see if all the new components fit together as precisely as we planned and calculated beforehand.” Aiba was himself involved in these detailed calculations – preparations for the renovation began several years ago.

On Tuesday, 14 January, the team succeeds in introducing the electrons into the first part of the storage ring. The particles do not get very far at first; which isn’t the first goal anyway. “It would be useless if we sent the electrons to do a full round once, but it was a bad round,” Aiba explains. The particles are so fast that, when SLS is operating, they fly through the entire ring a million times every second – even the smallest disturbance is noticeable. Actually storing the electrons in the ring only works if the first and therefore all subsequent rounds are as perfect as possible.

On his screens, Aiba can see exactly when the beam is not advancing well enough, and which magnet then needs to be adjusted and how. “Then we switch the machine off and confer with the people from the metrology group. They go into the accelerator tunnel and correct the magnets.” This part of the process is completely analogue, as screwdrivers are used to fine-tune individual permanent magnets until they are even better adjusted.

These new high-performance magnets are a crucial part of project SLS 2.0: the total number of magnets has been significantly increased; but where previously only electromagnets were installed, a large number of permanent magnets are now also in use. This makes the SLS a facility that is unique in the world and saves 60 percent energy compared to before. In addition, the permanent magnets reduce the noise that can affect the electron beam. All in all, the upgrade makes the electron beam 40 times better than before.

From a quarter of a lap to a million

On Wednesday, 15 January, the electrons are making it through the first quarter of the ring. One of the software windows on the second screen from the right displays a graphic with a row of 130 green dots, like pearls on a string. They show the measured values of the so-called beam position monitors, which register the position and intensity of the electron beam along the ring. The first 30 or so points have moved up, while all those behind them are still on the zero line – indicating how far the beam is getting so far. To make it farther, a few technical adjustments are now required.

Read more on PSI website

Image: Jonas Kallestrup, Masamitsu Aiba, and Felix Armborst (from left) in the PSI control room. They are part of the commissioning team that has now brought electrons back into the electron storage ring of the synchrotron as part of the SLS 2.0 upgrade project.

Credit: Paul Scherrer Institute PSI/Markus Fischer

Innovative battery electrode made from tin foam

Innovative battery electrode made from tin foam

Metal-based electrodes in lithium-ion batteries promise significantly higher capacities than conventional graphite electrodes. Unfortunately, they degrade due to mechanical stress during charging and discharging cycles. A team at HZB has now shown that a highly porous tin foam is much better at absorbing mechanical stress during charging cycles. This makes tin foam an interesting material for lithium batteries.

Modern lithium-ion batteries are typically based on a multilayer graphite electrode, with the counter electrode often made of cobalt oxide. During charging and discharging, lithium ions migrate into the graphite without causing significant volume changes in the material. However, the capacity of graphite is limited, making the search for alternative materials an exciting area of research. Metal-based electrodes, such as aluminium or tin, have the potential to offer higher capacity. However, they tend to expand significantly in volume when lithium is absorbed, which is associated with structural changes and material fatigue. Tin is particularly attractive because it’s capacity per kilogram is almost three times higher than graphite, and it is not a rare raw material but is available in abundance. One option for realising metal electrodes that ‘fatigue’ less quickly involves nanostructuring the thin metal foils. Another option is to use porous metal foams.

A team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) has now studied various types of tin electrodes during the discharge and charging process using operando X-ray imaging, and developed an innovative approach to address this problem. Part of the experiments were carried out at the BAMline at BESSY II. The high-resolution radioscopic X-ray images were taken in collaboration with imaging experts Dr. Nikolai Kardjilov and Dr. André Hilger at HZB. ‘This allowed us to track the structural changes in the investigated Sn-metal-based electrodes during the charging/discharging processes,’ says Dr. Bouchra Bouabadi, first author of the study. With battery expert Dr. Sebastian Risse, she explored how the morphology of the tin electrodes changes during operation due to the inhomogeneous absorption of lithium ions.

Read more on HZB website

Image: Tin can be processed into a highly porous foam. An interdisciplinary team at HZB has investigated how this tin foam (pictured) behaves as a battery electrode.

Credit: B. Bouabadi / HZB

On the hunt for axions

On the hunt for axions

New X-ray experiment at the European XFEL could solve some of the mysteries of physics

Researchers at European XFEL, together with colleagues from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the University of Oxford and other research institutions, have been searching for a hypothetical particle that could potentially explain the dark matter of the universe. The experiment is described in a study published in Physical Review Letters.

The researchers hunted for so-called axions at the High Energy Density instrument HED/HiBEF at European XFEL. Axions are tiny and incredibly light hypothetical particles. They are intended to explain, for example, why neutrons, which make up atomic nuclei alongside protons, have no electric dipole moment, even though the nuclear building blocks consist of even smaller charged particles known as quarks. This could also be an indication of new physics beyond the standard model. Furthermore, axions are a natural candidate for dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up most of the structure of the universe.

The researchers used European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg, the largest and most powerful X-ray laser in the world for their experiments. They channelled the intense X-ray beam of European XFEL through thin plates of germanium crystals. These have strong electric fields inside. For moving particles, this appears like an extremely strong magnetic field of around 1000 Tesla. This enables photons to transform themselves into axions and back again.

Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: Axion search at the HED/HiBEF instrument of European XFEL

Credit: European XFEL

Enzyme discovered from Brazilian biodiversity can revolutionize bio-refineries

Enzyme discovered from Brazilian biodiversity can revolutionize bio-refineries

Unprecedented enzyme class prospected in Brazilian soil can increase biorefinery efficiency and accelerate the sustainable production of energy and chemicals

A new enzyme class discovered in Brazilian soil represents one of the main advances in recent decades in the field of sustainable production of energy and chemicals. This enzyme is capable of accelerating the cellulose breakdown, a critical process in the production of bioenergy and biochemicals. This discovery, published in the journal Nature, was led by researchers from CNPEM (Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, in Campinas) in a partnership with researchers from INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, at Aix Marseille University) and Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

This enzyme was identified from the genetic material of a microbial community found in biomass residues collected in Brazilian soils. Its novel mechanism of action, combined with the ability to generate its own co-substrate, makes it a powerful tool for plant biomass deconstruction.

“This discovery changes the paradigm of cellulose degradation in nature and has the potential to revolutionize biorefineries”, says CNPEM researcher Mario Murakami, responsible for leading the studies. “With CelOCE, we can envision new routes for bioenergy, biochemicals and biomaterials production from plant biomass, contributing to a bio-based, low-carbon and circular economy.”

CelOCE (Cellulose Oxidative Cleaving Enzyme) improves efficiency in breaking down biomass into glucose, an essential step to convert this raw material into bioenergy and biochemicals. This research spanned from bioprospection in nature to an industrially relevant scale, with validation at the CNPEM pilot plant.

Data under industrial conditions have shown that, when used together with enzymes already used in the industry, CelOCE increased the amount of glucose released by up to 21% from agro-industrial residues. This means higher productivity and less waste in the industrial process.

According to ANP (Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels) data, Brazil produced 43 billion ethanol liters in 2023. With this discovery, production can increase by billions of liters, using agro-industrial residues such as sugarcane bagasse, corn straw, wood and other crops, without needing to expand planting areas. However, the exact volume of this increase cannot yet be determined, as it depends on the amount of residues that will be used for ethanol production.

The research was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from CNPEM and international institutions from countries such as France and Denmark. According to CNPEM’s General Director, Antonio José Roque da Silva, the combination of advanced techniques available at the Center, including X-ray crystallography at Sirius, Brazil’s particle accelerator, and genetic engineering with CRISPR-Cas9, was essential to unravel  CelOCE’s unprecedented mechanism. “This work exemplifies the potential opened up by the integration and synergy between CNPEM’s different scientific competencies”, highlights the institution’s General Director.

Read more on CNPEM website

A new dimension of complexity for layered magnetic materials

A new dimension of complexity for layered magnetic materials

When it comes to layered quantum materials, current understanding only scratches the surface; so demonstrates a new study from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. Using advanced X-ray spectroscopy at the Swiss Light Source SLS, researchers uncovered magnetic phenomena driven by unexpected interactions between the layers of a kagome ferromagnet made from iron and tin. This discovery challenges assumptions about layered alloys of common metals, providing a starting point for developing new magnetoelectric devices and rare-earth-free motors. 

Patterns are everything. With quantum materials, it’s not just what they’re made of but how their atoms or molecules are organised that gives rise to the exotic properties that excite researchers with their promise for future technologies. 

Graphene showed this to the world: arranged into single layers of a hexagonal lattice, common-or-garden carbon atoms could exhibit extraordinary electronic properties. Research over the last decade has since been dedicated to discovering whether other two-dimensional arrays of atoms, either alone or stacked into a three-dimensional material, can reveal similarly novel behaviours.

The kagome lattice, which takes its name from a type of Japanese basket woven in corner sharing triangles, is another two-dimensional pattern that has excited researchers with its ability to host exotic quantum states, ranging from superconductivity to unconventional magnetism. 

Yet until now, research has focused on electronic and magnetic properties in two-dimensions of the material. The latest results in Fe3Sn2 – a ferromagnetic material made of iron and tin atoms arranged into the intricate kagome pattern – change that.

Read more on the PSI website

Image: The kagome ferromagnet, Fe3Sn2 hosts spin waves – magnetic ripples arising from collective excitations of electron spins (shown here as golden arrows). The new findings reveal that the spin-waves are influenced by unexpected interactions between the layers in the material.

Credit: ©Wenliang Zhang / Paul Scherrer Institute PSI

Anomaly in the deep sea

Anomaly in the deep sea

Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth’s geological history. A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), in collaboration with the TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Australian National University (ANU), has discovered an unexpected accumulation of this isotope in samples taken from the Pacific seabed. Such an anomaly may be attributed to shifts in ocean currents or astrophysical events that occurred approximately 10 million years ago. The findings hold the potential to serve as a global time marker, representing a promising advancement in the dating of geological archives spanning millions of years. 

Radionuclides are types of atomic nuclei (isotopes) that decay into other elements over time. They are used to date archaeological and geological samples, with radiocarbon dating being one of the most well-known methods. In principle, radiocarbon dating is based on the fact that living organisms continuously absorb the radioactive isotope carbon-14 (14C) during their lifetime. Once an organism dies, the absorption ceases, and the 14C content starts to decrease through radioactive decay with a half-life of approximately 5,700 years. By comparing the ratio of unstable 14C to stable carbon-12 (12C), researchers can determine the date of the organism’s death.

Archaeological finds, such as bones or remnants of wood, can be dated quite accurately in this way. “However, the radiocarbon method is limited to dating samples no more than 50,000 years old,” explains HZDR physicist Dr. Dominik Koll. “To date older samples, we need to use other isotopes, such as cosmogenic beryllium-10 (10Be).” This isotope is created when cosmic rays interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. It reaches the Earth through precipitation and can accumulate on the seabed. With a half-life of 1.4 million years, 10Be decays into boron, allowing geological dating that can extend back over 10 million years.

Conspicuous accumulation of beryllium

Some time ago, Koll’s research group examined unique geological samples retrieved from the Pacific Ocean at a depth of several kilometers. The samples consisted of ferromanganese crusts, primarily composed of iron and manganese, which had formed slowly but steadily over millions of years. To date the samples, the team analyzed the 10Be content using a highly sensitive method – Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) at HZDR. In this process, the sample is chemically purified before undergoing analysis for trace isotopes. Individual atoms from the sample are accelerated by high voltage, deflected by magnets, and then registered by specialized detectors. This method allows for the precise identification of 10Be, distinguishing it from other beryllium isotopes as well as molecules and isotopes with the same mass, such as boron-10.

When the research group evaluated the collected data, they were in for a surprise. “At around 10 million years, we found almost twice as much 10Be as we had anticipated,” reports Koll. “We had stumbled upon a previously undiscovered anomaly.” To eliminate any possibility of contamination, the experts analyzed additional samples from the Pacific, which also exhibited the same anomaly. This consistency allows the team to conclude that it is indeed a real phenomenon.

Read more on HZDR website

Image: Schematic depiction of production and incorporation of cosmogenic 10Be into ferromanganese crusts. A pronounced anomaly in 10Be concentration about 10 million years ago was discovered. This anomaly has great potential as time marker for the Late Miocene.

Credit: HZDR / blrck.de

A novel fullerene structure on a topological insulator surface

A novel fullerene structure on a topological insulator surface

The so-called Buckminster fullerene (C60) has a spherical shape and assembles into a cubic structure at all temperatures. At room temperature, the fullerenes can spin around their axes and hence, the molecules are randomly oriented. At lower temperature, this spinning motion is frozen and all the C60 molecules are orientationally ordered in a certain direction. The transition to ordered structure with cooling is typically observed as first order structural transition from face-centered-cubic to simple cubic structure below 260 K. While thick layers of fullerenes on metal and semiconductor substrates have been studied previously, the C60 structural transition in single layer and its impact on substrate surface electronic properties are still unexplored.

In this work, Pandeya et al. studied the growth of single layer long-range crystalline order of a single layer fullerene film on a novel substrate. Since the expected effect of C60 on the substrate is rather small because of the van der Waals interaction, a topological insulator (TI), Bi4Te3, with spin-polarized electronic states located at the surface was chosen as substrate. The sample was grown at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) by molecular beam epitaxy and capped with a protective layer so that it could be safely transported to Elettra synchrotron. The surface character of the topological insulator electronic states made it possible to study the interaction with adsorbed fullerenes.

To probe the electronic structure of both topological insulator surface and the C60 thin film, high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements were carried out at the BaDElPh beamline of Elettra, taking advantage of high brightness, high energy resolution, photon energy tunability, and most importantly polarization tunability of the photon source. The study was conducted at two different temperatures: room temperature, at which the fullerenes are spinning, and 30 K, at which the spinning motion is frozen out. Careful analysis of the ARPES data (see Figure 1) enabled the research team to identify a significant electron transfer to the TI surface state from C60 layer at room temperature without affecting substrate surface and thin film electronic properties. Interestingly, at low temperature where C60 molecules are frozen, a negligible charge transfer to TI surface was observed, indicating that both the substrate and thin films preserve the pristine electronic properties.

Read more on Elettra website

Scientists invent “slime” that could be used in new medical, green energy, and robot applications

Scientists invent “slime” that could be used in new medical, green energy, and robot applications

University of Guelph (U of G) researchers have developed a slime-like material that produces electricity when compressed. When the team studied their prototype using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, they discovered the material has an array of potential applications.

If installed in floors, it could produce clean energy when people walk on it. If incorporated into a shoe insole, it could be used to analyze your gait. In theory, says lead researcher Erica Pensini, their material could even be used as the basis for a synthetic skin to train robots to know how much pressure to use when checking the pulse of a patient.

“The synchrotron is like a super-microscope,” says Pensini. “It allowed us to see that if you apply an electric field, you can change the crystalline structure of this material.”

Pensini, an associate professor at U of G, and colleagues, found that the “slime” could form different structures at the microscopic level so that it either arranged itself like a sponge, formed layers like a lasagna, or took on a hexagonal form. Pensini conducted the work in collaboration with U of G professors Alejandro G. Marangoni, Aicheng Chen, and Stefano Gregori.

This property, explains Pensini, could offer an opportunity for the targeted delivery of medicine within the body. “Imagine you have the material take an initial structure that contains a pharmaceutical substance and then, when an electric field is applied to it, the structure changes to release the medicine.”

The team’s prototype is composed of natural materials that are highly compatible with the body. It is 90 per cent water plus oleic acid (found in olive oil) and amino acids (the building blocks of protein in the body). “I wanted to make something that is 100 per cent benign and that I would put on my skin without any concerns,” she says.

Read more on CLS website

PETRA III delivers novel approach to determine melting at high pressures

PETRA III delivers novel approach to determine melting at high pressures

An international team of scientists from DESY Photon Science, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (U.S.), the University of Edinburgh (UK), and Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (Germany) has developed a novel approach to accurately determine the melting temperature of opaque materials using X-ray phase contrast imaging and X-ray diffraction in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell at up to pressures of 500 000 bar and 4000 Kelvin. The team lead by Emma Ehrenreich-Petersen from DESY and Earl Francis O’Bannon from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developed the technique at beamline P02.2 at DESY´s high-energy photon source PETRA III and published their results in the journal Results in Physics.

For decades, determining the high pressure melting of opaque materials has been a significant challenge. Many approaches have been developed over the last decades since the introduction of laser heated diamond anvil cell. This fist-large high-pressure device consists of two opposed modified diamonds which compress the sample in between them. It can generate pressures that are higher than the pressure found at the center of the Earth. The sample – in this case a metal foil – can be heated through the transparent diamonds with very powerful infrared lasers that illuminate the sample from both sides of the diamonds. “It is extremely difficult to detect the first appearance of very small amounts of melt by means of optical imaging or X-ray diffraction of the sample. This led to discrepancies in melt temperature determination in earlier studies,” explains lead author Emma Ehrenreich-Petersen from DESY. “In our study we combine the otherwise well-established technique of X-ray phase contrast imaging with diffraction and apply it to the laser heated diamond anvil cell, to detect the smallest amount of phase contrast between the solid and the liquid sample”

“This approach has the advantage that one does not need to melt the entire sample, since this setup can resolve features as small as about one micron” states project leader Earl Francis O’Bannon from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “We benchmarked this novel approach at the PETRA III Extreme Conditions Beamline P02.2 by determining the melting line of platinum up to pressures of 500 000 atmospheres and temperatures up to 4000 Kelvin. We demonstrated that the technique is much more sensitive in determining the onset of melting than any other previous technique.”

Read more on PETRAIII website

Image: The technique developed at PETRA III allows the incipient melting process in platinum (centre) to be tracked precisely.

Credit: DESY, Hanns-Peter Liermann