Organic material can convert toxic heavy metal to harmless form

Organic material can convert toxic heavy metal to harmless form

Researchers from the University of Waterloo have discovered that a special form of charcoal is highly effective at absorbing toxic chromium and transforming it into its safer form.

Chromium is a heavy metal that exists in two forms. One form, chromium(III), is a safe micronutrient that our body needs. The other, chromium(VI), is a dangerous carcinogen linked to ovarian, lung, and liver cancer, and reproductive problems. The dangerous form is usually created during industrial processes such as leather tanning, stainless steel production, and mining, but it can also occur naturally in the presence of manganese minerals.

Biochar, a form of charcoal produced by heating agricultural waste without oxygen, is being studied as a potential tool for cleaning up chromium pollution at industrial sites, using the natural filtering ability of organic carbon.

Filip Budimir, a PhD candidate in earth and environmental sciences at the University of Waterloo, wanted to know what happens when water contaminated with chromium(VI) is mixed with an oak-based biochar. His research is published in the journal Chemosphere.

Using the Canadian Light Source at the University of Saskatchewan, Budimir probed the biochar to see where the chromium was being deposited on the grains, and which version of the metal was there. He found that, while the solution initially contained only Cr(VI), after sitting for 120 hours (5 days), most of the chromium (~85%) had become Cr(III). So not only was the biochar absorbing the toxic chromium, it was also converting it to its safer form.

Read more on CLS website

Light-twisting materials created from nano semiconductors

Light-twisting materials created from nano semiconductors

Cornell scientists have developed a novel technique to transform symmetrical semiconductor particles into intricately twisted, spiral structures – or “chiral” materials – producing films with extraordinary light-bending properties.

The discovery, detailed in a paper publishing Jan. 31 in the journal Science, could revolutionize technologies that rely on controlling light polarization, such as displays, sensors and optical communications devices.

Chiral materials are special because they can twist light. One way to create them is through exciton-coupling, where light excites nanomaterials to form excitons that interact and share energy with each other. Historically, exciton-coupled chiral materials were made from organic, carbon-based molecules. Creating them from inorganic semiconductors, prized for their stability and tunable optical properties, has proven exceptionally challenging due to the precise control needed over nanomaterial interactions.

Scientists from the lab of Richard D. Robinson, associate professor of materials science and engineering in Cornell Engineering and senior author of the study, overcame this challenge by employing “magic-sized clusters” made from cadmium-based semiconductor compounds. Magic-sized clusters are unique nanoparticles because they are identical copies of each other, existing only in discrete sizes, unlike many nanoparticles that can vary continuously in size. Previous research by the Robinson Group reported that when the nanoclusters were processed into thin films, they demonstrated circular dichroism, a key signature of chirality.

“Circular dichroism means the material absorbs left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized light differently, like how screw threads dictate which way something twists,” Robinson explained. “We realized that by carefully controlling the film’s drying geometry, we could control its structure and its chirality. We saw this as an opportunity to bring a property usually found in organic materials into the inorganic world.”

The researchers used meniscus-guided evaporation to twist linear nanocluster assemblies into helical shapes, forming homochiral domains several square millimeters in size. These films exhibit an exceptionally large light-matter response, surpassing previously reported record values for inorganic semiconductor materials by nearly two orders of magnitude.

“I’m excited about the versatility of the method, which works with different nanocluster compositions, allowing us to tailor the films to interact with light from the ultraviolet to the infrared,” said Thomas Ugras, a doctoral student in the field of applied and engineering physics who led the research. “The assembly technique imbues not only chirality but also linear alignment onto nanocluster fibers as they deposit, making the films sensitive to both circularly and linearly polarized light, enhancing their functionality as metamaterial-like optical sensors.”

This discovery could revolutionize technologies that rely on controlling light polarization, and lead to new innovations, such as holographic 3D displays, room-temperature quantum computing, ultra-low-power devices, or medical diagnostics that analyze blood glucose levels non-invasively. The findings also provide insights into the formation of natural chiral structures, such as DNA, which could inform future research in biology and nanotechnology.

Read more on CHESS website

SESAME leads the way in Open Science worldwide with DataCite Global Access Fund

SESAME leads the way in Open Science worldwide with DataCite Global Access Fund

SESAME and Arab States Research and Education Network (ASREN) are collaborating with Global Access Fund (GAF) on a transformative initiative to enhance the accessibility, management, and sharing of research data to its user community. The GAF is part of the DataCite Global Access Program (GAP) made possible by grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The scope of the project is to create a scalable infrastructure that enhances data discoverability, citation, and accessibility, advancing Open Science and international collaboration. SESAME’s role in this initiative underscores its commitment to scientific progress and global partnerships.

In addition to SESAME’s efforts, ASREN plays a vital role by providing the technical infrastructure needed for Open Science initiatives in the Middle East and Africa. True to its mission to implement, manage and extend sustainable pan-Arab e-Infrastructures dedicated to the use of research and education communities, ASREN will facilitate data sharing among research institutions through high-capacity networks.

This collaboration places SESAME in a unique position to foster scientific cooperation in politically diverse regions. With its (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) FAIR data practices and partnerships with global organizations like DataCite, SESAME is helping researchers from the Middle East contribute significantly to global scientific knowledge. The comprehensive experimental data and its metadata associated with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) support researchers in sharing their findings transparently and collaborating with the global scientific community, raising the visibility of Middle Eastern scientists and promoting new opportunities for partnerships.

Read more on SESAME website

Cu2Ge: A New 2D Topological Semimetal

Cu2Ge: A New 2D Topological Semimetal

Members of the “Spectroscopy of Novel Quantum States” team from the Paris Institute of Nanosciences, Sorbonne University, came to the URANOS beamline (synchrotron Solaris) to study the electronic properties of a recently synthetized material: Cu2Ge which is a so-called “nodal line” topological semi-metal. More generally, their scientific objectives are focused on understanding the electronic and magnetic properties of low-dimensional systems such as superconductors, topological and magnetic materials, or Mott insulators.

Among various metal/semiconductor systems, copper/germanium alloys have been studied since the 1990s to understand the formation mechanisms of Schottky barriers, fundamental to diodes of the same name. This Cu2Ge system has attracted renewed interest due to recent predictions of density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Indeed, these calculations predict that the 2D alloy Cu2Ge has a band structure with a 1D intersection of valence and conduction bands, characteristic of a topological semimetal with a Dirac nodal line. In this work, we have experimentally demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to synthesize Cu2Ge on a surface of a copper crystal and that its electronic structure exhibits the expected characteristics of the purely 2D case. Its properties make this alloy a promising candidate for high-frequency electronic applications and an ideal system for studying exotic properties that can emerge in nodal line materials.
Two-dimensional materials are widely studied for their exceptional properties, which allow for potential applications in various fields such as photovoltaics, catalysis, microelectronics, and biomedicine. Additionally, some of these 2D systems exhibit topological properties, further increasing the possibility of discovering new electronic behaviors without a bulk equivalent. Such is the case for Cu2Ge, an alloy consisting of an atomic plane of copper and germanium. Although Cu/Ge alloys were studied several decades ago for Schottky barrier formation, more recent DFT calculations shed new light on these systems. They reveal that, in the case of a 2D Cu2Ge layer, the band structure should exhibit cones intersecting along two closed loops. These “loops” are known as Dirac lines. When these lines are close to the Fermi level, the material noteworthy properties: the potential for higher carrier densities than graphene while maintaining very high carrier velocity.

Read more on SOLARIS website

Berkeley Lab Helps Explore Mysteries of Asteroid Bennu

Berkeley Lab Helps Explore Mysteries of Asteroid Bennu

The Advanced Light Source and Molecular Foundry provided powerful tools to study asteroid samples returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Researchers found a telltale set of salts formed by evaporation that illuminate Bennu’s watery past.

During the past year, there’s been an unusual set of samples at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab): material gathered from the 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid Bennu when it was roughly 200 million miles from Earth.

Berkeley Lab is one of more than 40 institutions investigating Bennu’s chemical makeup to better understand how our solar system and planets evolved. In a new study published today in the journal Nature, researchers found evidence that Bennu comes from an ancient wet world, with some material from the coldest regions of the solar system, likely beyond the orbit of Saturn. 

The asteroid contained a set of salty mineral deposits that formed in an exact sequence when a brine evaporated, leaving clues about the type of water that flowed billions of years ago. Brines could be a productive broth for cooking up some of the key ingredients of life, and the same type of minerals are found in dried-up lake beds on Earth (such as Searles Lake in California) and have been observed on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

“It’s an amazing privilege to be able to study asteroid material, direct from space,” said Matthew Marcus, a Berkeley Lab scientist who runs the Advanced Light Source (ALS) beamline where some of the samples were studied and who wrote one of the programs used to analyze their chemical composition. “We have highly specialized instruments that can tell us what Bennu is made of and help reveal its history.”

The samples from Bennu were gathered by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid. The mission returned nearly 122 grams of material from Bennu – the largest sample ever captured in space and returned to Earth from an extraterrestrial body beyond the Moon.

Marcus teamed up with Scott Sandford from NASA Ames Research Center and Zack Gainsforth from the UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory to study the Bennu sample using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) at the ALS. By varying the energy of the X-rays, they were able to determine the presence (or absence) of specific chemical bonds at the nanometer scale and map out the different chemicals found in the asteroid. The science team discovered that some of the last salts to evaporate from the brine were mixed into the rock at the finest levels.

“This sort of information provides us with important clues about the processes, environments, and timing that formed the samples,” Sandford said. “Understanding these samples is important, since they represent the types of materials that were likely seeded on the surface of the early Earth and may have played a role in the origins and early evolution of life.”

At Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, researchers used a beam of electrons to image the same Bennu samples with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The Foundry also helped prepare the samples for the experiments run at the ALS. Experts used an ion beam to carve out microscopic sections of the material that are about a thousand times thinner than a sheet of paper.

“Being able to examine the same exact atoms using both STXM and TEM removed many of the uncertainties in interpreting our data,” Gainsforth said. “We were able to confirm that we really were seeing a ubiquitous phase formed by evaporation. It took a lot of work to get Bennu to give up its secrets, but we are delighted with the final result.” 

This is not the first time the ALS and Molecular Foundry have studied material from space. Researchers also used the two facilities to investigate samples from the asteroid Ryugu, building up our understanding of our early solar system. And there’s still more to come, with additional studies of Bennu at both the STXM and infrared beamlines at the ALS planned for the coming year.

Read more on ALS website

Lightsources.org appoints new Vice-Chair and launches its Vision and Strategic Goals for the next decade

Lightsources.org appoints new Vice-Chair and launches its Vision and Strategic Goals for the next decade

Lightsources.org, the international collaboration of light source science communicators, has appointed Ana Belén Martínez, Head of the Communications and Outreach Office at the ALBA Synchrotron near Barcelona in Spain, as the collaboration’s new Vice-Chair.

Ana joins Sandra Ribeiro, Communications Advisor at the Canadian Light Source (CLS), who is the Chair of Lightsources.org. Together they will lead the collaboration and guide it at a strategic level. Silvana Westbury, the Project Manager, manages the collaboration’s online activities and supports the 26 member organisations by facilitating opportunities for knowledge exchange and delivering communications activities aimed at a range of audiences including facility staff, existing and potential users, early career professionals and specialist publications.

Lightsources.org starts 2025 will a clear vision for the next decade. Ana’s appointment coincides with the publication of the collaboration’s 10-year Vision and Strategic Goals (link below), which gives Lightsources.org defined goals and tactics for supporting the communications activities of all its members.

Commenting on these exciting developments, Sandra Ribeiro says, “We are delighted to have Ana on board as Vice-Chair following a recent vote by our members. She replaces Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke, former Head of Communications at Diamond Light Source, whose energy and support was instrumental in making Lightsources.org the success it is today. Having built up the Communications and Outreach Office at ALBA over the past decade, Ana brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our collaboration. In addition, Ana has been an active member of Lightsources.org since 2016 and her passion for our field and willingness to support communications colleagues around the world make her ideal for the role of Vice-Chair”.

Ana Belén Martínez adds, “I’m thrilled to take on this new role in our collaboration, particularly at such an exciting time. Lightsources.org celebrated its 20th Anniversary last year and this milestone prompted us to focus on the vision and strategic goals for the next decade. As the home for the global light source community, we have exciting plans to help our members to attract the next generation of STEM professionals; provide training opportunities aimed at keeping members at the forefront of the ever evolving field of science communication; showcase the science enabled by light sources and its impact on society as a whole; and support members in important areas such as equality, diversity and inclusion and staff wellbeing.”    

Lightsources.org creates one voice for the field, ensuring member facilities are well positioned for funding, access, and research, to make use of each facility’s unique capabilities, and to enhance the effectiveness of the science carried out.

The Lightsources.org website is a global resource, providing information and updates about light sources research and achievements, and opportunities for careers and international collaboration. This is made possible by financial support from the member facilities, whose contributions enable further promotion and international coverage of their innovations and capabilities.

Light sources are large science facilities that create hubs of research and technical expertise. Scientists from both academia and industry can access and use the light produced in the form of beams of X-rays, Ultra-Violet and Infrared. The scale of their impact can be evidenced in the output. Since the collaboration’s member facilities came online more than 183,000 unique articles* have been published by the user communities and staff. Most of the light sources have capabilities in protein crystallography and there have been over 130,000 protein structures* deposited by our user communities and staff in the Worldwide Protein Data Bank. Light sources also employ large teams of scientists, engineers, data scientists, software engineers, along with support teams that include experts in technical support, procurement, finance, legal, user support, communications and human resources. These teams currently make up 8,000* staff spread over the 32 facilities within Lightsources.org.

*as of December 2023

The Lightsources.org 10-year Vision and Strategic Goals plan, can be viewed via the link below:

https://www.diamond.ac.uk/docroot/lightsources.org/ls.org-vision-goals/: Lightsources.org appoints new Vice-Chair and launches its Vision and Strategic Goals for the next decade

Image: Lightsources.org members at the 20th Anniversary in person meeting at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory, October 2024. Left to right – Shelly Kelly, APS physicist and group leader, Marie Gray, Argonne Integrated Communications Manager, Photon Sciences, Ana Belén Martínez, Head of the Communications and Outreach Office at ALBA & Vice-Chair of Lightsources.org, Ricarda Laasch, Manager, SSRL User Research Administration (SLAC), Beth Schlesinger, Agronne Head of Communications, Photon Sciences, Paul Jones, Project Manager and Coordinator for LCLS (SLAC), Silvana Westbury, Project Manager, Lightsources.org, Katelyn Towner, CHESS User Office Manager (Cornell), Cindy Lee, Senior Communications Specialist at the ALS (Berkeley), Mirjam van Daalen, Head of Communications at PSI, Gianna FazioLiu, Director of Communications at the ALS (Berkeley), Denise Yazak, NSLS-II & LBMS Science Communications Manager (Brookhaven), Sandra Ribeiro, Communications Advisor at the Canadian Light Source and Chair of Lightsources.org, Rick Ryan, Science Communicator at CHESS (Cornell), Stefania Mazzorana, Event and Development Manager at Diamond Light Source.

Credit: APS/Argonne

The raw material detectives

The raw material detectives

New modeling methods and geochemical analyses provide information about deep deposits

The growing demand for raw materials makes mining unavoidable. The exploration of deposits increasingly relies on more environmentally friendly methods. In the European DeepBEAT project, scientists at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), an institute of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), are pursuing the approach of using geochemical analyses to detect deep-seated ore deposits in a non-invasive manner. The researchers are testing the methods in three areas in Germany, the Czech Republic and Finland. The integrative involvement of all participants is an essential part of the project in order to improve mutual understanding in exploration projects. The EU is funding the three-year project with five million euros.

Our high-tech lifestyle is causing the raw materials consumption to rise continually. Despite intensive research into more effective processes, the demand cannot be met by recycling alone. At the same time, there is a growing awareness of our geopolitical responsibility regarding raw materials extraction. Both of these factors lead to the realization that raw materials must increasingly be extracted from European sources in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. New methods are needed to detect raw material-rich deposits in Europe – especially for deep-seated deposits, as neither geophysical nor geochemical signals from deep layers are easily distinguishable from signals close to the surface. To this end, scientists from six countries have joined forces to apply geochemical analysis methods for exploration and implement new forms of modeling in the European research project DeepBEAT (Deep exploration BoostEd by Advanced exploration Technologies).

Search for deep-seated deposits using geochemistry

Geochemistry is an important tool for many geoscientific questions. It provides insights into the material composition, distribution, stability, and cycle of chemical elements and their isotopes in minerals, rocks, soils, water, the Earth’s atmosphere, and the biosphere. “In geological exploration, geochemical approaches are typically used to analyze core samples in order to interpret information from depth. In the case of surface samples, geochemistry is traditionally applied to soil samples to detect, for example, abnormally high metal concentrations in soils. This typically only identifies near-surface ore deposits. Geochemical methods have been tested in a few studies to detect deeper deposits, and these have shown promising results,” explains Dr. Solveig Pospiech, project leader at HIF.

The detection of deep deposits is complicated by the distance between the surface and the ore body as a signal source. The challenge is to provide effective methods for improving the signal-to-noise ratio. These methods are intended to distinguish whether a measured signal originates from nearby sources – for example from outcropping rock or contamination from industrial activities – or from a deep source – i.e. a potential deposit. By tracing underground material cycles, scientists are gaining a better understanding of the geological situation. A key factor is selecting meaningful sampling points in the field and the materials to be sampled.

Read more on HZDR website

Image: Deep Exploration of concealed, deep-seated deposits of rare earth elements, cobalt and lithium boosted by advanced exploration technologies with geochemical methods at the surface

Credit: HZDR/Blaurock

Improved stability of gold nanoparticles for cancer therapy

Improved stability of gold nanoparticles for cancer therapy

A study carried out by researchers from POLYMAT-University of the Basque Country, INIFTA-Universidad Nacional de la Plata and the ALBA Synchrotron has made promising advances in the stabilization of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for use in cancer therapy. The work, published in the scientific journal Small, describes the synthesis of anisotropic hybrid particles of gold nanoparticles and nanogel, which overcome the challenges that have held back the clinical application of AuNPs, while maintaining their optical properties for the first time.

Gold nanoparticles are considered a powerful tool in photothermal cancer treatment due to their ability to convert light into heat, which is concentrated on tumor cells to destroy them. However, research has shown that unprotected anisotropic gold nanoparticles are prone to to undergo evaporation and condensation processes that result in the loss of their photothermal properties during the duration of the irradiation treatment. A new study, published in the scientific journal Small, presents a novel approach for stabilizing these particles while preserving their critical optical characteristics and, therefore, with the potential to improve the efficacy of cancer therapies.

Anisotropic gold nanoparticles are non-spherical photothermal particles that can be designed for thermal conversion by near-infrared irradiation, which is particularly advantageous in medical applications because of their high penetration depth in biological tissues and low toxicity to normal cells. However, their structural instability precludes prolonged therapeutic use. For this reason, previous studies have attempted to coat gold nanoparticles in gels such as polyethylene glycol (PEG). Yet, while these coatings improved stability, they also altered the unique shape and optical properties of the gold nanoparticles, significantly reducing their photothermal efficacy.

In this new study, researchers from POLYMAT-University of the Basque Country, INIFTA-La Plata National University, and the ALBA Synchrotron, devised a one-pot synthesis method that stabilizes anisotropic gold nanoparticles by coating them in an ultra thin, in situ polymeric nanogel. Using polyacrylamide (pAA) and poly-(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM), the team achieved nanogel shells between 2–8 nanometers thick around each individual gold nanoparticle. This ultra thin coating preserved the nanoparticles’ dimensions and shape, ensuring that their unique optical and photothermal properties were unaffected. Notably, rod-shaped and star-shaped nanoparticles retained their structural integrity and optical characteristics, with rod-shaped hybrids showing particularly promising stability and efficiency for photothermal applications. The researchers also found that pNIPAM coatings offered the best protection for the nanoparticles, while pAA coatings exhibited optimal photothermal conversion efficiency.

Read more on ALBA website

V-161: A Breakthrough in the Fight against Antibiotic-Resistant VRE Infections

V-161: A Breakthrough in the Fight against Antibiotic-Resistant VRE Infections

V-161 targets a crucial enzyme in VRE, offering promise in combating antibiotic-resistant infections in hospital environments

V-161, a novel compound targeting the Na+-V-ATPase enzyme in vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), significantly reduces bacterial growth and colonization. A recent study has demonstrated a promising approach for fighting antibiotic resistance by identifying a compound, V-161, that inhibits a sodium-pumping enzyme critical for VRE survival under alkaline conditions in the intestine while preserving beneficial bacteria. This breakthrough offers hope for treating hospital infections and tackling the global threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a global health concern, with studies projecting over ten million deaths annually by 2050 due to these resistant infections. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified twelve critical antibiotic-resistant pathogens, including vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE), such as Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium). VRE causes severe hospital-acquired infections like endocarditis and sepsis and has developed resistance to multiple antibiotics, highlighting the urgent need for new antimicrobial treatments.

In response to this crisis, a team of researchers led by Professor Takeshi Murata from the Graduate School of Science, Chiba University, Japan, has discovered a promising new compound, V-161, which effectively inhibits the growth of VRE. Their research examined a sodium-pumping enzyme found in these bacteria called Na+-transporting V-ATPase found in E. hirae, a close relative of E. faecium, used as a safer, more tractable model for studying the enzyme. The team consisted of Assistant Professor Kano Suzuki, first author from the Graduate School of Science, Chiba University; Associate Professor Yoshiyuki Goto from the Medical Mycology Research Center, Chiba University; Professor Toshiya Senda and Associate Professor Toshio Moriya from the Structural Biology Research Center, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization; and Professor Ryota Iino from the Institute for Molecular Science, National Institutes of Natural Sciences. This study, published online in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology on November 21, 2024, hypothesized that Na+-transporting V-ATPase could play a key role in the development of an antibiotic that specifically targets VRE without affecting beneficial bacteria.

Read more on Photon Factory website

A new way to look at thyroid tumours

A new way to look at thyroid tumours

Follicular tumours in the thyroid can be difficult to diagnose as the entire follicle capsule needs to be sliced and inspected in order to detect ruptures. The current protocol involves cytology and histology, but these have limitations. Researchers from Uppsala University (UU) and Lund University (LU) are investigating the potential use of synchrotron-based virtual histology for 3D inspection of the follicle capsule at MAX IV.

Thyroid tumours can be either benign follicular adenoma or malignant follicular carcinoma. The ability to assess the difference is crucial. Although cytological analysis can effectively distinguish between benign and malignant, it is unable to detect key diagnostic indicators of follicular carcinoma such as capsular breach or vascular invasion. In addition, further detailed histopathological analysis following diagnostic surgery is often required, which can be meticulous and time-consuming due to the number of thin slices necessary to correctly identify whether malignant indicators are present. Lund University Associate Professor Martin Bech and resident Physician Matilda Annebäck and Chief Physician Olov Norlén from Uppsala University conducted a pilot study at MAX IV’s DanMAX beamline to determine the applicability of a new and improved assessment method for thyroid tumours.

Synchrotron radiation-based micro-tomography (SRµCT) is an imaging technique that enables 3D mapping of internal structures of materials. At DanMAX, the field of view is 1.2 x 1.2 mm, allowing analysis of the thyroid lobes and, with exceptional spatial resolution, enabling detailed 3D visualization of the thyroid tissue.

Learn more about open access for academic research at MAX IV.

Are you interested in industrial research and collaboration possibilities? Read more here.

The goal is that SRµCT will detect those diagnostic features that are missed or difficult to spot with current available methods. Another advantage of SRµCT is that it is non-destructive to the sample, and thus will allow for subsequent histological analysis for comparative analysis between the two techniques

This will be the first study using SRµCT for follicular thyroid tumours, although it has been conducted elsewhere in other tissues from the lung, heart and brain. The challenge in the current experiment was the sample size in relation to the beam size. As a proof-of-concept experiment, it was deemed successful.

MAX IV is an ideal location for clinical experiments in Sweden as ethical approval often has stipulations about transport of samples outside of the country. The study samples were used for diagnostic purposes thus it was not difficult to obtain the ethics approval.

The collaboration between experts in the thyroid field (Department of Surgical Sciences; Endocrine Surgery, UU), and experts in SRµCT (X-Ray Phase Contrast Group, LU), arose after Martin Bech presented at Uppsala about the possibilities at MAX IV, with Olof Norlén in attendance at the talk.

This is a great example of how many studies are conducted at MAX IV and illustrates the need for mixed expertise in order to conduct these experiments, as the researchers from UU have the clinical expertise but were new users at MAX IV. As both parties are part of academic institutions, they were able to apply for free access to MAX IV through the peer-reviewed process which negates the need to apply for separate experimental funding.

SRµCT experiments generate substantial data, which is currently being analysed by the pathologist at UU and compared to their histological findings. More detailed data analysis will be another collaboration between the two research groups with the ultimate goal to publish the findings. This technique is of great interest to pathologists and has further implications both in the research and clinical fields.

Read more on MAXIV website

Image: Thyroid tumour sample at DanMAX beamline.

 Credit: MAX IV

Scientists visualise crucial step in protein production in bacteria

Scientists visualise crucial step in protein production in bacteria

Researchers have visualized for the first time how mRNA is delivered to the ribosome to begin production of proteins. They solved 9 of the structures using the ESRF’s cryo-EM. The results are published in Science.

Our DNA holds the instructions for making proteins, which are essential for the body to function. To use these instructions, a molecular machine called RNA polymerase (RNAP) copies the relevant section of DNA into a short-lived copy called messenger RNA (mRNA). This mRNA carries the instructions to another molecular machine, the ribosome. In bacteria, these two steps happen at the same time, allowing RNAP and the ribosome to cooperate and regulate each other.

A team led by Albert Weixlbaumer at the  Institut de Génétique et de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire (IGBMC) in Strasbourg, France, wanted to know how bacterial ribosomes are recruited to mRNAs, while they are still transcribed by RNAP. Using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), they studied complexes where an mRNA emerging from RNA polymerase (RNAP) was bound to the ribosome’s small subunit.

The team used cryo-EM at the ESRF and at IGBMC to visualize the ribosome-mRNA assemblies at molecular resolution. This enabled them to observe the process in great detail. The cryo-EM experiments at the ESRF provided the structure of 9 of the complexes studied. “Access to high-end cryo-EM instruments is absolutely essential and represents the culmination of our work. It is a real pleasure to work with the scientists at the ESRF, we always feel they are very dedicated to the projects they support and the data quality and amount of date we obtain could not be better”, explains Albert Weixlbaumer, leader of the team and researcher at the IGBMC.

Complementary single-molecule fluorescence co-localization experiments carried out in the lab of Nils Walter (University of Michigan, USA) and in vivo crosslinking followed by mass spectrometry carried out in the lab of Juri Rappsilber (Technical University Berlin, Germany) suggest RNAP and the ribosome cooperate to facilitate recruitment of the small ribosomal subunit to the mRNA.

Intricate machines

“Our research reveals how these molecules work like intricate machines. I am always amazed that it is possible to reconstitute such an intricate and biologically fundamental process in a tube in the laboratory,” says Michael Webster, now a group leader at the John Innes Centre in the UK and one of the lead authors of the study which was published in Science.

“It is particularly exciting to have the opportunity to use powerful imaging techniques to answer questions that researchers have been interested in for a long time,” he adds.

Read more on ESRF website

Green cement: Electric heating to contribute to climate neutrality

Green cement: Electric heating to contribute to climate neutrality

HZDR researchers involved in research project on decarbonization of the cement industry

The cement industry is one of the largest producers of carbon dioxide. It is responsible for up to eight percent of global man-made emissions – almost three times as much as the global air traffic. To reduce this share and become climate-neutral, the industry is relying on technological innovations. The international project “ECem”, in which scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) are also involved, is pursuing a promising approach. With the help of electric heating technologies for the energy-intensive process of calcination, the partners from science and industry want to drastically reduce CO2 emissions in cement production. The project started in the fall of 2024 and will run for three and a half years. It is funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark with 21 million Danish crowns (about 2.8 million euros).

Calcination is one of the most important process steps in the production of cement. Limestone is heated to approximately 1450°C in a large furnace and converted into clinker, the main component of cement, by thermal decomposition. This chemical process is responsible for a large proportion of the CO2 emissions released by the cement industry as a whole. Two-thirds of the CO2 is produced during the decomposition of the limestone, a process known as decarbonization, and is therefore unavoidable. The remaining third is due to the enormous energy consumption required to reach the high temperatures. Fossil fuels such as coal or gas are usually used for this purpose.

The „ECem“ (Electric calciner technologies for cement plants of the future) research project is now taking on this industrial heating process. The goal is to develop a more climate-friendly alternative. To this end, the project partners, led by the Danish cement company FLSmidth, including the Danish Institute of Technology, the University of Aalborg, the companies European Energy and Cementos Argos, as well as the HZDR, want to develop two different electric heating technologies.

Metal balls give limestone the necessary material properties

While the Danish partners in the project are working on the development of an infrared radiant heating system, scientists at the HZDR Institute for Fluid Dynamics are researching an electrical solution based on inductive heating. The team first wants to set up a laboratory experiment in which induction coils generate a high-frequency field to heat the material in a container. In a later stage, a rotating kiln will be modeled in a further experimental setup with key data that closely approximates industrial conditions. The challenge is that materials such as limestone, which consists mainly of calcium carbonate, are actually unsuitable for induction heating due to their poor electrical conductivity.

To overcome this obstacle, the team wants to mix so-called susceptors into the raw material to be heated. These are components designed to efficiently convert the electric energy into heat and transfer it to the material. An important task is to find the right material that can function robustly as a susceptor at high temperatures and under harsh industrial conditions. Possible candidates must have a high melting point, must not react with the limestone and should be abrasion-resistant. Forming the susceptors into a shape, for example as metal balls, would have the advantage of combining the calcination and grinding processes into a single step. Investments in the electrification of industrial processes could, in addition to avoiding CO2, have further positive effects such as increasing efficiency or improving product quality, thus giving the respective companies a competitive advantage in the global markets. 

Read more on HZDR website

Image: Functional diagram of the inductive heating of a rotary kiln reactor in cement production: so-called susceptors are added to compensate for the poor electrical conductivity of the raw material. These components, shaped as metal balls in the picture, efficiently convert the energy transferred by induction into heat and distribute it evenly throughout the vessel.

Source: HZDR / B.Schröder

Young Scientist Award for Patrick Heighway

Young Scientist Award for Patrick Heighway

“Patrick Heighway deserves the prestigious prize for his pivotal role in measuring X-ray diffraction at extreme pressures and temperatures at the HED-HiBEF Instrument”, says Emma McBride from Queen’s University, Belfast and chairperson of the User Organization Executive Committee (UOEC).

His work combines experimental data with molecular dynamics simulations to provide critical insight into the nature of release pathways of shock compressed materials, kinematics of plasticity, and the fundamental interaction of grains in compressed polycrystalline materials. This work is important for many different fields, including geophysics, fundamental material science, shock and plasma physics, the search for novel materials, and understanding pathways to fusion energy.

The European XFEL Young Scientist Award recognises young researchers who are at the beginning of their career but are already making outstanding contributions to research at the European XFEL.

The winner will receive a monetary award of 2,000 Euro and was invited to give a talk as part of the plenary session of the European XFEL User Meeting on 21 January 2025 in Hamburg.

For the first time, the European XFEL User Organization Executive Committee awards as well prizes to posters presented this year at the European XFEL Users’ Meeting about exciting research performed with radiation from European XFEL. Poster prizes were awarded to Daniele Ronchetti (CFEL), Calum Prestwood and Carolina Camarda (both European XFEL).

Their topics were “Elastic scattering enhancement via transient resonances” (Ronchetti), “Tracking atomic populations and transitions in x-ray heated mid-Z transition metals” (Prestwood), and “Electronic properties of Ferropericlase (Mg,Fe)O obtained from dynamic compression experiments using DiPOLE100-X at European XFEL” (Camarda).

Read more on European XFEL website

Simultaneous experiment unlocks new collaborative research potential utilising a joint AI platform

Simultaneous experiment unlocks new collaborative research potential utilising a joint AI platform

Diamond Light Source’s I22 beamline and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source’s Larmor instrument demonstrate the potential afforded using a cutting-edge technique.

In a groundbreaking experiment, a robotic sample preparation platform, driven by artificial intelligence (AI) was used to undertake simultaneous experiments at both Diamond Light Source, the UK’s National Synchrotron, and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, the UK’s National Neutron and Muon Source. While collaborative research between these two science facilities, located on the Harwell campus in South Oxfordshire, is common, this particular experiment has pushed new boundaries with the experiments being performed at the same time on identical robotic set-ups which were in direct communication with each other. 

The simultaneous experiment was driven by two Automated Formulation Laboratories (AFLs), which after a two-year delay with customs, finally made it to the Harwell Campus. They were then installed and operated autonomously on Diamond’s I22 and ISIS’s Larmor small-angle scattering beamlines. The AFLs were produced by research teams from The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, shipped to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and then installed at Diamond and ISIS. 

Dr Gregory Smith, from ISIS, said:

We have discussed using the autonomous formulation laboratory for experiments at ISIS for many years, and it was only recently that we considered the idea of running neutron and X-ray measurements in parallel at ISIS and Diamond. Getting one piece of bespoke equipment on site to run an experiment is challenging enough, but it took great effort from many staff here at RAL, from support staff to scientists to engineers, to manage this. I was pleased to finally manage to get the AFLs here and use them as intended, and the exciting results produced by the NIST team justified all this work, resulting in a truly unique experiment.

The experiment investigated paint formulations, making use of small angle scattering to determine properties of the system. The AFL machines, one red and one blue, were linked together across computer networks and worked concurrently, capturing multiple modalities of the formulations synthesised. 

The project had two objectives; the researchers from NIST were testing the AI and robotic elements of the machines, whilst also working on an industrially relevant question – in this case “what is the optimal formulation of a given paint system?”. 

By using both small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) at the I22 beamline and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) at Larmor, the experiment proved more effective in both the utilisation of beamtime as well as the quality of data collection. SAXS data can be collected more quickly than SANS data, which allowed the experimental team to rule out formulations that weren’t of interest. This allowed a more complete dataset from the significant formulations in a shorter amount of time, as the team could gather insights from the different parts of the system with each technique. Diamond and ISIS offered the unique opportunity for both formulation labs to work in unison at the neutron and X-ray facilities, a situation that is currently only possible in two locations in the world.

Tim Snow, principal software scientist working on Diamond’s I22 beamline, said: 

It is a really good example of both facilities working together to exploit our unique capabilities, acquiring the best data for our users.

The robotic element of the AFL prepares liquid mixtures via pipetting and transfers those mixtures to a measurement cell. Following a SANS or SAXS experiment, the data is analysed by an AI software algorithm. The AI algorithm looks at the collected data to work out what mixture to make next and subsequently what scan to conduct next.  

Read more on Diamond website

Image: The red Automated Formulation Laboratory (AFL) in place on Diamond’s I22 beamline.

Understanding the Role of Manganese in Fuel Production Catalysts

Understanding the Role of Manganese in Fuel Production Catalysts

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT

Using specialized equipment at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), including a custom-built reaction cell, researchers uncovered the role of manganese in cobalt manganese oxide catalysts used for fuel production.

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT

This work opens the door to improved catalyst designs that could decrease the production of harmful methane byproducts in a common petrochemical process. 

Sustainable fuel production

First developed in the 1920s, the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis remains a common chemical process used to convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen from coal into liquid hydrocarbons, or fuel. Cobalt is an efficient catalyst for this reaction, and its combination with manganese has been known for decades to further improve the process by promoting the preferential production of long-chain hydrocarbons over methane, a contributor to climate change. However, the molecular scale origin for why manganese improves the efficiency of this reaction remains unclear.

In this work, researchers uncovered the role of manganese in cobalt-manganese-oxide systems by combining well-defined model catalysts with advanced x-ray spectroscopy techniques. These results provide a platform for how customized equipment can answer challenging scientific questions and set the stage for new catalyst designs that may further decrease the production of methane during Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.

Custom-built instrumentation

Numerous studies have investigated the mechanisms for catalytic performance in cobalt-manganese-oxide systems, proposing particular interfaces, mixed oxides, or nanostructures as reasons for the improved efficiency. However, due to the heterogeneity of widely used powder catalysts, resulting in separated domains of cobalt and manganese, the molecular-scale mechanism of these catalysts remains under debate. To circumvent this, the researchers created model catalysts of well-defined cobalt-manganese-oxide nanocrystals and films where the components were intermixed at the sub-nanometer scale.

The model catalysts were investigated using ambient-pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) at Beamline 9.3.2, which is equipped with commercial instrumentation uniquely designed for ambient-condition experiments that mimic real reaction conditions (this instrumentation was previously developed by the researchers, is now available at Beamline 9.0.2 and Beamline 11.0.2, and induced the application of APXPS at other synchrotron facilities). Similarly, to achieve realistic reaction conditions for x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), a custom-built reaction cell was designed for Beamline 8.0.1, allowing experiments that typically occur under high vacuum to be performed under ambient pressure. The challenging and iterative process of perfecting this reaction cell was key to the success of this study, and the reaction cell is now available to other ALS users.

The magic of manganese

Using the custom-built reaction cell for XAS, the researchers were able to observe the real-time breakdown of carbon monoxide during the introduction of hydrogen to the cobalt-manganese-oxide catalyst at ambient conditions. Next, APXPS showed a significant increase in CHx hydrocarbon species after the addition of carbon monoxide and hydrogen on the cobalt-manganese-oxide catalyst surface–which was in stark contrast to the systems without manganese, where the production of cobalt carbide was more dominant instead. In other words, these results demonstrated that the addition of manganese creates more CHx, which ultimately allows for the production of more long-chain hydrocarbons.

The ALS data was complemented by computational density functional theory (DFT) calculations. DFT demonstrated that manganese helps with the production of long-chain hydrocarbons because manganese oxide binds with hydrogen, making it unavailable for reacting with CHx to stop propagation, resulting in less methane and more long-chain hydrocarbons. Moving forward, this work paves the way for improved catalyst designs that can make these reactions even more efficient.

Read more on ALS website

Developing new drugs to battle resurgence of malaria

Developing new drugs to battle resurgence of malaria

With a warming climate comes the threat of expanding habitats for mosquitos that carry malaria, but researchers are using sophisticated synchrotron techniques in the quest for new treatments for the deadly disease.

While most cases of Malaria occur in sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America, and Southeast Asia, “mosquito areas are spreading,” explained Dr. Oluwatoyin Asojo, adjunct professor of biochemistry and cell biology at The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Warmer temperatures are helping the mosquitos return to breeding grounds “in places where we haven’t seen it (malaria) since the early part of the 20th century,” like North America and parts of Europe.

According to the World Health Organization’s most recent World Malaria Report, there were 262 million cases of the disease worldwide in 2023 and 597,000 deaths. Almost all the deaths occurred in Africa.

Given the risk of new malaria spread and growing drug resistance to conventional quinine-based therapeutics, new options are needed “so we’ll have an arsenal of tools ready,” she said. Asojo is part of an international team of scientists and students using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to study treatments targeting the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax). The challenge with P. vivax is that it can remain dormant in the human liver for years or even decades, then enter the blood and cause symptoms.

The team recently found a compound (IMP-1088) that binds in the parasite with an enzyme called N-myristoyltransferase or NMT, which also occurs naturally in humans. This binding inhibits all stages thus disrupting P. vivax’s lifecycle.

Read more on CLS website