New strategy combines techniques to study intracellular transport of nanoparticles

New strategy combines techniques to study intracellular transport of nanoparticles

Research led by CNPEM scientists reveals intracellular movement of nanoparticles coated with a protein corona. The technique employed in the study will be available at the Sibipiruna beamline, which is dedicated to research on BSL-4 pathogens.

Researchers from the Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), in collaboration with institutions in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States, have demonstrated a new strategy to monitor the intracellular trajectory of nanoparticles. The study was one of the cover features for the journal Small in June 2025, and combined different high-resolution microscopy techniques to observe how these particles move around in the cellular environment over time.

The research used advanced microscopy resources from the Nanotechnology National Laboratory (LNNano) and Sirius facilities, and included a technique not yet available at the center, X-ray cryotomography. Measurements were obtained using a beamline with characteristics similar to the future Sibipiruna line, which will be part of Project Orion. The resulting data verified the use of this technique in cryogenic conditions, as well as its ability to reveal cellular structures smaller than the viruses that will be studied in the future laboratory complex. 

The approach made it possible to identify the migration of nanoparticles to the perinuclear region of cells and fusion of the vesicles that transport them, without the use of contrast agents. The results overcome common limitations in studies of this type, and offer a promising tool for understanding how nanomaterials behave in complex biological systems.  

Nanoparticles and the challenge of cell internalization

Nanoparticles have been widely studied for their potential in biomedical applications such as controlled release of medications, diagnostic imaging and targeted therapy. But these applications still face major obstacles, especially with regard to detailed understanding of the mechanisms through which these particles are internalized and move within cells. 

The formation of the protein corona, a layer of biomolecules that adsorbs onto the surface of nanoparticles when they come into contact with biological fluids, is a good example of the complexity involved in investigating the mechanisms of internalization and intracellular transit. This layer significantly alters the physical and chemical properties of the particles, influencing their stability and interaction with different cell types. Understanding the behavior of these nanoparticles in the intracellular environment consequently requires approaches that take into account both cell dynamics and the variability introduced by the corona’s composition. 

Despite advances in characterization techniques, most studies offer only specific or static views of the internalization process; it is generally not possible to distinguish between particles absorbed at different times, or to follow their precise location within the cell over time. This study conducted by CNPEM researchers proposes an alternative approach intended to overcome these obstacles through an experimental strategy that employs different imaging methods, providing a broader analysis that extracts the best from each technique. 

A new approach to studying cell dynamics

The researchers proposed a protocol based on a short period of cell exposure, followed by complete removal of the unabsorbed nanoparticles and cryopreservation of the cells after different time intervals (0, 2, and 24 hours). Nanoparticle internalization by the cells was then evaluated using wide-field fluorescence microscopy, and showed progressive migration to the perinuclear region. 

“Previous studies investigating the internalization process of nanoparticles also used cells that were fixed after different time intervals but incubated continuously. As a result of this method, nanoparticles internalized at the beginning of the incubation period cannot be distinguished from those internalized at the end. The alternative method we are proposing avoids this problem and facilitates analysis of the sequence of events and changes associated with the cell internalization process,” explains Mateus Cardoso, an author of the article and researcher at the Synchrotron Light National Laboratory (LNLS), which is part of CNPEM. 

Read more on CNPEM website

Image: FFibroblasts after incubation with silica nanoparticles in the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). Wide-field fluorescence microscopy image. (Image adapted from Galdino et al., Small, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202409065)

Biomaterials for Improving Ovarian Tissue Transplantation

Biomaterials for Improving Ovarian Tissue Transplantation

Cryopreservation of ovarian tissue and its subsequent transplantation represent a big hope to preserve fertility in young women who have defeated cancer. Ovary revascularization is a crucial factor impacting the outcome of the engraftment. Limited oxygenation may have severe consequences on the ovarian reserve, with a significant loss of follicles. New frontiers in reproductive technology aim to reduce the ischemic/hypoxic window following auto-transplantation procedures. Biomaterials supplemented with ovarian-derived endothelial cells could be the solution to enhance vascular regeneration in the transplanted tissue.

In this study, we propose a combined Advanced Therapeutic Medicinal Product (ATMP) obtained from the association of cryopreserved ovarian tissue with a 3D dermal substitute — a biocompatible and bioactive scaffold employed in regenerative medicine — pre-seeded with vascular system cells previously isolated from the same ovarian tissue. This pre-seeding, known as inosculation, is a bioengineering approach aimed at enhancing revascularization by promoting the formation of novel vascular networks within the scaffold prior to implantation. The goal of the research is to demonstrate that a such graft can boost the growth of new vessels (Fig. 1), potentially improving the ovary survival and functionality.

To evaluate the effectiveness of this approach, several techniques were employed including synchrotron radiation-based X-ray phase-contrast microtomography (SR PC-microCT). As a volumetric imaging technique, SR PC-microCT enables three-dimensional visualization of the inner anatomical structures of the proposed ATMP at high spatial and contrast resolution, with the additional advantage of being non-destructive. Scans were carried out at the SYRMEP Imaging beamline of Elettra. The findings obtained by the X-ray images were complemented by histology and immunohistochemical analyses, adhesion and proliferation assays, gene expression and immunofluorescence. 

A bovine collagen-based scaffold, Integra®, was selected among various dermal substitute materials tested and was used as a support for ovarian transplantation in subsequent in vivo experiments on mouse models. Histology clearly demonstrates the presence of endothelial cells within the Integra® matrix, exhibiting a tendency to form vascular structures. Red-blood cells can be also observed inside the developing vessels (Fig. 2a). Similarly, Fig. 2b shows a virtual slice obtained by X-ray PC microCT of a sample region at the interface between the ovarian tissue and the Integra® support. In agreement with the histological data, the X-ray image shows a massive accumulation of dense structures within the scaffold, which may be attributed to a high concentration of endothelial cells. Notably, SR PC microCT enables the cells distribution within the scanned blocks to be tracked, revealing a migration of the endothelial cells from the matrix into the tissue with a preferential side of accumulation. Supplementary videos are available on the full paper website (please follow the link at bottom of this page).

Read more on Elettra website

 

Research on ice-forming compound could improve pipeline safety, carbon capture and storage

Research on ice-forming compound could improve pipeline safety, carbon capture and storage

Canadians may think they’re intimately familiar with ice in all its forms, but there is one kind that most have probably never heard of. Clathrate hydrates are tiny crystalline cages of ice that can trap other gases or liquids inside them.

These hydrates can form in natural gas pipelines and cause explosions if they block the line. The BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 was caused by hydrate formation, says John Tse, Canada Research Chair of Materials Science and a professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics at the University of Saskatchewan (USask).

That’s one of the reasons Tse and his colleagues “want to understand more about how this compound forms, and how the gas and water interact with each other.”

Because the reactions that form hydrates happen so quickly, the researchers needed a way to both slow them down and observe them in progress. So Tse cooled down a mixture of water and a chemical called tetrahydrofuran (THF) to -263oC in a vacuum, then used the powerful X-ray beamlines of the Canadian Light Source at USask to watch how the molecules moved and changed shape as he slowly warmed up the mixture.

Tse found that, as the temperature rose, the THF separated out and formed crystals while the frozen water remained in a non-crystal form. Then, around -163oC, the THF suddenly melted and mixed with the water to form clathrate hydrates, crystalline cages of ice with THF trapped inside.

Understanding more about how hydrates behave could lead to many different practical applications beyond just protecting against pipeline explosions. They could also be used in natural gas transport and storage – a single cubic foot of hydrate can store up to 150 cubic feet of gas – or for carbon capture and storage projects. Tse hopes that his fundamental science work will be used by more applications-minded engineers to develop helpful new technologies.

Read more on CLS website

Scotty’s rib: University of Regina PhD student examines preserved blood vessels in famous fossil

Scotty’s rib: University of Regina PhD student examines preserved blood vessels in famous fossil

A University of Regina research team made some dino-mite discoveries about how dinosaurs may have healed from injuries when they examined the preserved blood vessel structures inside a rib bone from Scotty, the famous Tyrannosaurus rex unearthed in Saskatchewan in the 1990s. Their findings were recently published in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal that publishes original research from across the natural sciences, psychology, medicine, and engineering.

Jerit L. Mitchell, a PhD student in the Department of Physics at the University of Regina, is the study’s lead author, who joined the research project in 2019 when Scotty’s rib was scanned at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) for the first time. Mitchell was finishing his undergraduate honours thesis research when he discovered the vessel structures.

“I remember showing my supervisors, Dr. Barbi and Dr. McKellar, a strange structure inside a scan of the rib that I originally didn’t give much thought to. They were quick to point out that what I discovered could possibly be preserved blood vessels, which has since led to a much more expansive research project,” says Mitchell.

The powerful synchrotron X-rays produced by the CLS at the University of Saskatchewan enabled the researchers to create a detailed 3D model of both the T. rex bone and the soft tissue structures that reside inside without damaging the 66-million-year-old fossil. Then, using chemical analysis, the researchers determined what elements and molecules make up the vessel structures, allowing them to hypothesize how the structures were preserved over millions of years.

The X-rays of Scotty’s rib showed a healed fracture, possibly due to a fight with another dinosaur. This discovery could provide important, evolutionary information to researchers, such as the healing potential of a T. rex.

“It was a real treat to be able to contribute to this research,” says Mohsen Shakouri, a staff scientist at the CLS. “We are pleased that our ultrabright synchrotron light helped the team gain new insights into the physiology of everyone’s favorite T. rex.”

Dr. Mauricio Barbi, physics professor at the U of R and Mitchell’s graduate supervisor, says this discovery could help focus the search for soft tissue in fossils.

“Preserved blood vessel structures, like we have found in Scotty’s rib bone, appear linked to areas where the bone was healing. This is because during the healing process, those areas had increased blood flow to them,” says Barbi. “This work also provides a new way to compare how injuries healed in extinct animals, like dinosaurs, with living species, such as birds and reptiles, which helps us better understand the biology of the past, and also how life on Earth has evolved over millions of years.”

Read more on CLS website

New technologies for PETRA IV

New technologies for PETRA IV

Large particle accelerators are extremely complex machines. At DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, for instance, electrons travelling close to the speed of light are stored for many hours at a time. This process requires an injector – a complex assembly of pre-accelerators that first produces the particles and then brings them up to speed before they are injected into the 2.3-kilometre PETRA III electron storage ring. For its planned successor PETRA IV, an innovative laser plasma accelerator is being developed that will inject the electrons directly into the storage ring without the detour through a pre-accelerator chain. This would save space and energy. In a recently published conceptual design report (CDR), the research centre DESY describes what such an injector might look like.

“The publication of this study is an important milestone for us,” says Alberto Martinez de la Ossa, corresponding author of the study. “We show that it is in principle possible to use a plasma injector for a high-performance source like PETRA IV and we outline the challenges that still need to be overcome.” The realization of this study was made possible by a team of scientists from two distinct communities: plasma-based and radiofrequency-based accelerators. “Closely working together has been crucial to coming up with the most promising design for the plasma injector,” adds de la Ossa.

The plasma injector is based on laser plasma acceleration which is still a relatively young technology. Instead of using powerful radio-frequency waves to accelerate the electron bunches to high energies, as in a conventional system, a laser fires short, extremely intense pulses of light into a gas-filled tube. Here, the light pulses create strong electric fields which can literally catapult electrons away. This technology allows powerful accelerating fields to be produced in a tiny space, permitting the construction of very compact accelerators. DESY has been developing and refining this technology for several years.

With the conceptual design for a PETRA IV injector, the research centre is now outlining a potential first concrete application of this pioneering technique. Currently, an electron gun generates the particle bunches for the PETRA III injector and a 70-metre linear accelerator (linac) brings them up to speed. The electrons then enter the DESY II accelerator – a ring-shaped synchrotron with a circumference of 300 metres, which accelerates the particles to their final energy of 6 GeV before sending them on to the PETRA III ring. “Using a plasma injector, we would only need a fraction of the space,” explains de la Ossa.

“The ideal version would be a small building right next to the storage ring,” adds Andreas Maier, lead scientist for plasma acceleration at DESY. “The laser could be housed on the upper floor and the plasma accelerator on the lower floor.” By connecting it directly to the ring, it would be possible to dispense with the components that are currently required to transfer the electron bunches. This, together with the plasma acceleration, could save a lot of energy.

Various innovations are being developed so that a practical injector can be built. The quality of the electron bunches is crucial – after all, PETRA IV is expected to produce significantly narrower and more intense X-rays than the current ring. To do this, the future machine requires electrons whose energy distribution fluctuates by no more than one percent. “That was probably the most fundamental challenge for a plasma injector,” explains de la Ossa, “because laser plasma accelerators tend to have a relatively broad energy spectrum.” The scientists have already overcome this hurdle. They recently developed an energy compressor, in which the plasma stage is followed by a short conventional accelerator. Thanks to a clever arrangement, the energy distribution of the electron bunches is compressed to within the required range. The concept has already been successfully implemented in a demonstrator experiment, whose results were recently published in the journal Nature.

To enable full energy direct injection into the storage ring, electrons with an energy level of 6 GeV are required. The DESY team wants to resort to a special variant of plasma acceleration and develop it further: a plasma channel guided laser plasma accelerator. In this method, a weaker light pulse is fired into a gas ahead of the actual laser pulse. This ionises the gas, turning it into a plasma and creating a channel for the main laser pulse following immediately behind it. As a result, the latter remains sharply focused over dozens of centimetres, so that it can accelerate electrons over a longer distance – and thus to higher energies. Another requirement is that, in order to allow a large number of experiments to be conducted at PETRA IV, the ring must be replenished with new electrons every few hours – which must happen as quickly as possible. To achieve this, the laser driving the future plasma injector needs to be able to fire around 10 to 30 high-intensity light pulses per second, depending on the amount of electrons each pulse carries. And finally, the laser-based system must prove that it can operate at the same level of reliability as the current, proven radio-frequency technology.

To study the complex interaction between the different technologies, DESY is able to draw on state-of-the-art computer simulations. New software was developed specifically for these studies. “Modelling the entire chain precisely – from the plasma accelerator to the PETRA IV storage ring – is a complex task, but crucial for such sophisticated studies,” says Maxence Thévenet, team leader for theory and simulations at DESY’s Plasma Acceleration Group. “Working in an open-source environment ensures high standards and promotes collaboration,” adds Thévenet.

Read more on DESY website

Image: In the laser-plasma accelerator, a short, high-intensity laser (shown in yellow) generates a plasma wave (shown in white). This wave enables electron bunches (shown in blue) to be accelerated to the energy required for PETRA IV within just a few centimetres. What a laser-plasma accelerator for PETRA IV—known as a plasma injector—could look like is described in the recently published CDR.

Credit: DESY, A. Ferran Pousa, A. Martinez de la Ossa.

Studying tRNAs by cryo-EM, biophysics, and computational modeling

Studying tRNAs by cryo-EM, biophysics, and computational modeling

In a pioneering study entitled “Determining the effects of pseudouridine incorporation on human tRNAs” published in EMBO Journal (Link 1), researchers from Malopolska Centre of Biotechnology (Link2) of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Link 3), in collaboration with scientists from the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB) in Warsaw (Link 4) and institutions from the United Kingdom and France, have significantly advanced our understanding of how specific modifications in transfer RNAs (tRNAs) affect their structure and stability.

tRNAs are essential molecules decoding genetic information into proteins, fundamental to all living organisms. We know tRNAs as long as we know DNA, but historically structural studies of tRNAs have been challenging due to their small size and complexity. The published work shows the structure of four human tRNAs before and after the enzyme-mediated introduction of pseudouridine (Ψ), linking these modifications to enhanced stability and certain structural changes. The findings reveal that the incorporation of Ψ, which is also incorporated in recent mRNA vaccines, not only stabilizes tRNAs, but also induces significant local structural changes. In detail, interactions between the D- and T-arms of the tRNA were identified as critical for maintaining their overall tertiary structure.

“This study demonstrates the profound impact of RNA modifications on tRNA stability and function,” said prof. Sebastian Glatt (Link 5), the leader of this study. “Our findings not only enhance our understanding of tRNA biogenesis but also highlight the potential applications of engineered tRNAs for therapeutic purposes.” adds Anna Biela, the first author of the work.

Key results from the study include:

• The first cryo-EM structures of multiple unmodified and pseudouridylated human tRNAs.

• Clear evidence that specific pseudouridine modifications significantly increase the stability of tRNAs.

• Context-dependent impact of modifications, indicating that not all pseudouridine modifications are equally beneficial.

The study was possible owing to the interdisciplinary combination of experimental and computational analyses. It utilized the advanced single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) infrastructure at the Solaris Synchrotron in Krakow (Link 6), the Structural Biology Core Fcaility (SBCF, Link 7) at MCB, novel biophysical techniques developed by Jakub Novak, and computational modeling and simulations.

Read more on SOLARIS website

Visualising soil aggregates: shedding light on soil structure

Visualising soil aggregates: shedding light on soil structure

xperiments at I14 beamline reveals how organic matter binds soil

Have you ever wondered how the soil you walk on was formed? Soil is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water and organisms that support the life of plants and soil organisms. Soil is an essential resource for, among other things, food production, water filtration, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration. Healthy soil is the cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and climate resilience, and its physical structure, especially the formation of aggregates, is key to its function. Soil aggregates are clusters of soil particles that bind together, influenced by biological, chemical, and physical processes. They affect water retention, aeration, root penetration, and microbial habitats. Understanding how these structures form is crucial for improving soil health and productivity, but their development at the microscale remains poorly understood. 

In an article recently published in the journal Soil Biology and Biochemistry, researchers from Lund University used advanced imaging at Diamond Light Source to track organic matter within forming soil aggregates. By labelling plant litter with rare earth elements and tracing their distribution using synchrotron radiation-based nano X-ray Fluorescence (nano-XRF) at the beamline I14, they visualised how organic matter physically embeds into soil particles. 

Understanding soil better through high-resolution visualisation

Before this study, researchers had observed that organic matter inputs, such as plant litter, can stimulate aggregate formation. However, the exact mechanisms, particularly the role of particulate organic matter (POM) and microbial activity in initiating and stabilising aggregates, were largely speculative. The field lacked detailed, spatially resolved analyses that could directly visualise how inputs become integrated into soil microstructures. 

Historically, studies relied on bulk chemical analysis and low-resolution imaging to assess organic matter in soil. However, these methods lacked the spatial precision to identify where and how litter becomes part of the aggregate matrix. As a result, researchers couldn’t fully determine whether physical incorporation, microbial binding, or chemical interactions were the main drivers. 

This research addressed that gap using nano-XRF imaging, allowing scientists to distinguish between particulate litter, mineral particles, and microbial hotspots in forming aggregates. The central scientific question was: what mechanisms underlie the physical integration of organic matter into soil structure, and how do different types of litter influence this process? 

This insight is crucial for land management and soil carbon storage strategies. By pinpointing the types of organic inputs that most effectively promote aggregation, the research provides a pathway to improving soil function and resilience. 

The role of Diamond synchrotron techniques in this study

The use of nano-XRF at Diamond’s I14 beamline enabled the team to track rare earth-labelled litter with high spatial resolution. This technique allowed for precise visualisation of micron-scale structures within soil aggregates, something traditional imaging could not achieve. The beamline’s capabilities in elemental mapping and chemical speciation were essential for distinguishing between organic particles and mineral matter. 

The imaging revealed that soil aggregates often formed around organic matter particles, with straw being embedded into the larger ones (>250 μm) to a higher extent. A known fungal preference for straw suggests their contribution to the process via physical binding of particles within their hyphal networks. Surprisingly, while microbial activity is typically assumed to be a major driver, the study found that microbial community composition had overall limited influence over the short duration (seven weeks) of the incubation period of the experiments. 

Read more on Diamond website

Image: Overlay image of Sm (blue) and Nd (yellow) binary nXRF intensity maps of a small microaggregate; magenta colour indicates area where Sm and Nd overlap

Unraveling phenylalanine’s toxic fibril formation

Unraveling phenylalanine’s toxic fibril formation

In a recent study published in Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, a team from Istanbul Medeniyet University, Marmara University, and SESAME investigated how L-phenylalanine (L-Phe) fibrils form and become toxic, and how D-phenylalanine (D-Phe) affects this process in different amounts and pH levels.

The study offers new insights into the biochemical mechanisms behind toxic amyloid-like structures—closely linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as phenylketonuria (PKU), Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

Phenylalanine, a type of amino acid, was found to create needle-shaped fibres at low amounts by using interactions called π-stacking and hydrogen bonding. These structures reduce cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner, mimicking pathological amyloid formation.

Using Synchrotron Fourier-Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy (SR-FTIRµ) at SESAME, researchers could identify specific vibrations related to the formation of harmful fibres. 

This advanced technique, which doesn’t require labels, allowed for a close look at the molecules in phenylalanine assemblies, showing important chemical signs related to changes in structure. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of fibril-related toxicity and underscore the value of synchrotron-based techniques for advancing research on amino acid behaviour in disease-relevant contexts. 

Read more on SESAME website

Splitting of x-rays creates new polaritons

Splitting of x-rays creates new polaritons

ESRF scientists have worked with colleagues from Germany and Finland to observe the signature of “polaritons” in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) for the first time. Generated via splitting X-ray photons in two, these part-light, part-matter quasi-particles could be exploited for high-resolution imaging, quantum optics and EUV lithography of microchips. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Upon encountering matter, photons begin to interact – often being absorbed and re-emitted by electrons en route through a material. This interaction generates a hybrid particle known as a polariton, a part-light, part-matter excitation that exists only as long as the photon and electron are intertwined. That means polaritons are difficult to detect, because only their faint signatures remain imprinted on the photons once they leave the material behind.

To strengthen the light–matter interaction and thereby enhance these polariton signatures, scientists usually have to craft finely mirrored cavities, which act like photon echo chambers. This works well for visible and infrared photons, but fabricating cavities small enough for ultraviolet or X-ray photons is notoriously tricky.

Now, a collaboration between scientists at the ESRF, the German synchrotron DESY, the University of Hamburg and the University of Helsinki has used a completely different approach to detect the signature of an EUV polariton unambiguously for the first time.  “A few groups have seen indications previously, but this here is the first smoking-gun type of evidence,” says Christoph Sahle, the scientist in charge of the ESRF’s ID20 beamline.

The experimental team opted to generate polaritons from X-ray photons in a bulk piece of pure diamond. This means there was no tailor-made cavity – they didn’t need one. Instead, they relied on another light–matter phenomenon known as parametric down-conversion (PDC), in which an incoming photon splits spontaneously into two new photons of lower energy – here, one in the X-ray regime, and one in the extreme ultraviolet (EUV). The trick of X-ray PDC means that the X-ray photon leaving the diamond acts as a messenger, carrying the information about the EUV polariton which would otherwise have been lost.

Next, the researchers needed to map in high resolution the relationship between the energy and momentum of the emerging X-ray light leaving the diamond. Using ID20’s X-ray Raman spectrometer in a novel detection mode, they were able to resolve a two-fold X-ray modulation mirroring the behaviour of the EUV partner photon – the tell-tale imprint of polaritons at work.

“ID20 was the perfect beamline to detect the EUV polariton,” says DESY’s Christina Boemer, the leader of the experimental team. “It has world-leading capabilities when it comes to instrumentation for high-resolution scattering, and still offered all the flexibility we needed to explore our new detection scheme. It was a team effort, and without the exceptional support from Christoph and his colleagues at ID20, this discovery couldn’t have been made.”

The ESRF experiment brings polariton physics into the EUV domain. Scientists will be keen to explore this new quantum playground, and find out whether light interacts with matter in different ways to how it does at lower energies. There may be practical applications, too. EUV polaritons could act as deep probes of the electronic and structural properties of materials. Further ahead, they could even be used to modify structures at nanometer scales for ultra-precise manufacturing or EUV-lithography.

Read more on ESRF website

Magnetic cooling – using a frustrated desert mineral

Magnetic cooling – using a frustrated desert mineral

The emerald-green mineral atacamite, named for the place it was first found, the Atacama Desert in Chile, gets its characteristic coloring from the copper ions it contains. These ions also determine the material’s magnetic properties: they each have an unpaired electron whose spin gives the ion a magnetic moment – comparable to a tiny needle on a compass. “The distinct feature of atacamite is the arrangement of the copper ions,” explains Dr. Leonie Heinze of Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS). “They form long chains of small, linked triangles known as sawtooth chains.” This geometric structure has consequences: although the copper ions’ spins always want to align themselves antiparallel to one another, the triangular arrangement makes this geometrically impossible to achieve completely. “We refer to this as magnetic frustration,” continues Heinze. As result of this frustration, the spins in atacamite only arrange themselves at very low temperatures – below 9 Kelvin (−264°C) – in a static alternating structure.

When the researchers examined atacamite under the extremely high magnetic fields at HZDR’s High Magnetic Field Laboratory (HLD), something surprising emerged: the material exhibited a noticeable cooling in the pulsed magnetic fields – and not just a slight one, but a drop to almost half of the original temperature. This unusually strong cooling effect particularly fascinated the researchers, as the behavior of magnetically frustrated materials in this context has scarcely been studied. However, magnetocaloric materials are considered a promising alternative to conventional cooling technologies, for example for energy-efficient cooling or the liquefaction of gases. This is because, instead of compressing and expanding a coolant – a process that takes place in every refrigerator – they can be used to change the temperature by applying a magnetic field in an environmentally friendly and potentially low-loss approach.

What is the origin of this strong magnetocaloric effect?

Additional studies at various labs of the European Magnetic Field Laboratory (EMFL) provided more in-depth insights. “By using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we were clearly able to demonstrate that the magnetic order of atacamite is destroyed when a magnetic field is applied,” explains Dr. Tommy Kotte, a scientist at HLD. “This is unusual as the magnetic fields in many magnetically frustrated materials usually counteract the frustration and even encourage ordered magnetic states.”

The team found the explanation for the mineral’s unexpected behavior in complex numerical simulations of its magnetic structure: while the magnetic field aligns the copper ions’ magnetic moments on the tips of the sawtooth chains along the field and thus reduces the frustration as expected, it is precisely these magnetic moments that mediate a weak coupling to neighboring chains. When this is removed, a long-range magnetic order can no longer exist. This also provided the team with an explanation for the particularly strong magnetocaloric effect: it always occurs when a magnetic field influences the disorder – or more precisely, the magnetic entropy – of a system. In order to compensate for this rapid change in entropy, the material has to adjust its temperature accordingly. This is the very mechanism the researchers have now managed to demonstrate in atacamite.

Read more om HZDR website

Image: Artistic representation of the magnetic sawtooth structure of atacamite: The magnetic moments (green) of the Cu ions (white and blue) cannot be completely aligned antiparallel to each other due to the triangular arrangement. At low temperatures, this results in the compromise arrangement shown. An external magnetic field destroys it and leads to an unexpectedly strong magnetocaloric effect, which could be used for efficient cooling.

Credit: B. Schröder/HZDR

Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair wins the Lennart Nilsson Prize

Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair wins the Lennart Nilsson Prize

ESRF user and Human Organ Atlas Hub co-chair Professor Maximilian  Ackermann, from the RWTH University Aachen, University Mainz and Helios University Clinics Wuppertal, has been awarded the Lennart Nilsson Prize 2025 by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm for his artistic images of human anatomy and pathology using notably the technique of Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT) at the ESRF, the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France.

The Lennart Nilsson Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards in the field of scientific photography, recognises Ackermann’s achievements in the use of novel, unique high-resolution imaging techniques, and especially the use of Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the ESRF, as well as his artistic view of the human anatomy and its pathological changes.

A pathologist at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen and Helios University Clinics Wuppertal and anatomist at the University Mainz, Ackermann is also co-chair of the Human Organ Atlas hub, where scientists and clinicians use HiP-CT technique at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) to provide valuable insights into human anatomy and diseases such as Covid-19, pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. A compendium of his artistic renderings of the human anatomy and numerous diseases can be found on the website PATHart.org.

The Human Organ Atlas Hub (HOAHub) is an international interdisciplinary scientific collaboration led by University College London (UCL) and the European Synchrotron (ESRF), with the University Medical Center Mainz, and the University Hospital RWTH Aachen. Funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, it aims to create a physical and virtual Hub that uses a novel technique developed at the ESRF, HiP-CT, to scan whole human organs with local cellular resolution, producing a “Human Organ Atlas in Health, Ageing and Disease“.

Read more on ESRF website

Image: The coloured scanning electron micrograph of a human lung with COVID19 infection shows numerous alveoli with inflammatory cells (yellow), hemorrhages (red) and hyaline membranes (blue).

 Credit: M. Ackermann

Unlocking the Mysteries of Life Under Pressure

Unlocking the Mysteries of Life Under Pressure

As scientists continue to discover new niches for extreme life, the biological relevance of hydrostatic pressure is becoming much more widely understood and appreciated. The unusual adaptations of organisms thriving under these conditions promise to be a rich source of new insights, provided structural information can be obtained at the molecular level.

CHESS is at the forefront of this research – enabling scientists to study samples under high pressure, revealing how biomolecules and cellular structures behave in extreme environments.

The deep sea encompasses more than 90% of Earth’s habitable volume, characterized by low temperatures and high pressures, with pressure increasing by about 1 bar per 10 meters depth. This extreme environment is home to unique organisms with remarkable adaptations. The biological relevance of hydrostatic pressure is becoming much more widely understood and appreciated as discoveries of new niches for extreme life continue to emerge.

University of California San Diego Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Itay Budin teamed up with researchers from around the country to study the cell membranes of ctenophores (“comb jellies”) and found they had unique lipid structures that allow them to live under intense pressure. Their work appears in Science.

In addition to biological applications, hydrostatic pressure is a useful biophysical tool that can perturb systems in ways directly connected to the presence of atomic-level voids, cavities, and other volumetric properties. Under pressure, individual molecular complexes can dissociate, and monomers can unfold; transitions can occur in lipid mesophases, and liquid phases can dissolve and re-form.

Read more on CHESS website

Image: A collage of comb jelly species arranged in order of depth. The shallowest one (top left) lives near the surface; the deepest one (bottom) attaches itself to seafloor structures 2.5 miles/4 km deep. The study was inspired by comparing the chemical composition of shallow and deep comb jellies.

 Credit: Jacob Winnikoff

A VISION for an AI Lab Partner

A VISION for an AI Lab Partner

Brookhaven Lab team pioneers interactive virtual companion to accelerate discoveries at scientific user facilities

UPTON, N.Y. — A team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have dreamed up, developed, and tested a novel voice-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) assistant designed to break down everyday barriers for busy scientists. 

Known as the Virtual Scientific Companion, or VISION, the generative AI tool – developed by researchers at the Lab’s Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) with support from experts at the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) — offers an opportunity to bridge knowledge gaps at complex instruments, carry out more efficient experiments, save scientists’ time, and overall, accelerate scientific discovery.

The idea is that a user simply has to tell VISION in plain language what they’d like to do at an instrument and the AI companion, tailored to that instrument, will take on the task — whether it’s running an experiment, launching data analysis, or visualizing results. The Brookhaven team recently shared details about VISION in a paper published in Machine Learning: Science and Technology.

“I’m really excited about how AI can impact science and it’s something we as the scientific community should definitely explore,” said Esther Tsai, a scientist in the AI-Accelerated Nanoscience group at CFN. “What we can’t deny is that brilliant scientists spend a lot of time on routine work. VISION acts as  an assistant that scientists and users can talk to for answers to basic questions about the instrument capability and operation.”

VISION highlights the close partnership between CFN and NSLS-II, two DOE Office of Science user facilities at Brookhaven Lab. Together they collaborate with facility users on the setup, scientific planning, and analysis of data from experiments at three NSLS-II beamlines, highly specialized measurement tools that enable researchers to explore the structure of materials using beams of X-rays.

Tsai, inspired to alleviate bottlenecks that come with using NSLS-II’s in-demand beamlines, received a DOE Early Career Award in 2023 to develop this new concept. Tsai now leads the CFN team behind VISION, which has collaborated with NSLS-II beamline scientists to launch and test the system at the Complex Materials Scattering (CMS) beamline at NSLS-II, demonstrating the first voice-controlled experiment at an X-ray scattering beamline and marking progress towards the world of AI-augmented discovery.

“At Brookhaven Lab, we’re not only leading in researching this frontier scientific virtual companion concept, we’re also being hands-on, deploying this AI technique on the experimental floor at NSLS-II and exploring how it can be useful to users,” Tsai said.

Talking to AI for flexible workflows

VISION leverages the growing capabilities of large language models (LLMs), the technology at the heart of popular AI assistants such as ChatGPT.

An LLM is an expansive program that creates text modeled on natural human language. VISION exploits this concept, not just to generate text for answering questions but also to generate decisions about what to do and computer code to drive an instrument. Internally, VISION is organized into multiple “cognitive blocks,” or cogs, each comprising an LLM that handles a specific task. Multiple cogs can be put together to form a capable assistant, with the cogs carrying out work transparently for the scientist.

“A user can just go to the beamline and say, ‘I want to select certain detectors’ or ‘I want to take a measurement every minute for five seconds’ or ‘I want to increase the temperature’ and VISION will translate that command into code,” Tsai said.

Those examples of natural language inputs, whether speech, text, or both, are first fed to VISION’s “classifier” cog, which decides what type of task the user is asking about. The classifier routes to the right cog for the task, such as an “operator” cog for instrument control or “analyst” cog for data analysis.

Then, in just a few seconds, the system translates the input into code that’s passed back to the beamline workstation, which the user can review before executing. On the back end, everything is being run on “HAL,” a CFN server optimized for running AI workloads on graphics processing units.

Read more on BNL website

Image: VISION aims to lead the natural-language-controlled scientific expedition with joint human-AI force for accelerated scientific discovery at user facilities.

Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

Nanoburgers with promising flaws

Nanoburgers with promising flaws

Publication in ACS Nano: DESY team finds surprising defects in tiny metal particles which could stimulate the development of more efficient catalysts

Catalysts are indispensable in many industries: they speed up chemical reactions, making them economically viable. They often consist of tiny particles, just a few nanometres across, to which molecules attach themselves, making it easier for them to form a bond with another reagent. The catalysts themselves are left unchanged. One class of nanocatalysts consists of the precious metals platinum and rhodium and is used, for example, in the purification of waste gases, in hydrogen production and in fuel cells.

The team led by DESY physicist Andreas Stierle has been studying such platinum-rhodium catalysts for quite some time. However, when they analysed the particles again using X-rays, they were surprised to find that some of the nanoparticles are not tiny, homogeneous lumps but consist of an upper and a lower half – like the two halves of a burger bun. Although the two halves are stuck together, the nature of this bond and how it affects the catalytic properties of the nanoparticles was unclear.

To work this out, Stierle’s team designed an experiment at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility ESRF in Grenoble. ‘It produces an extremely narrow X-ray beam that can be used to study individual nanoparticles,’ explains Stierle. Specifically, the researchers used a method known as Bragg Coherent Diffraction Imaging (BCDI), in which the X-ray beam creates a special diffraction pattern as it passes through the nanoparticle, and this is recorded by a detector. ‘Special algorithms can then be used to reconstruct how the atoms are arranged in the crystal lattice and where they deviate from the regular structure – distortions, defects and dislocations in the crystal lattice,’ explains Ivan Vartanyants, who supervised the reconstructions.

What made their experiment different was that the measurements were performed while the nanocatalysts were active. The group directed a stream of carbon monoxide and oxygen to pass over the nanoparticles, on whose surface the gas was converted into CO2 – at temperatures of more than 400 degrees Celsius. ‘These experiments were extremely difficult; we had to keep the nanoparticles fixed to within ten nanometres so that the X-ray beam always illuminated the entire particle,’ explains first author Lydia Bachmann, who is studying this topic as part of her PhD. ‘To do this, we had to make sure that the conditions were absolutely steady.’

The outcome was unexpected: the experts discovered pronounced crystal defects where the upper and lower halves of the nanoburgers meet. The two boundary surfaces did not fit perfectly on top of each other; atoms were missing around the outer edges. These gaps cause all the atoms in the vicinity to shift, significantly distorting and displacing the crystal lattice.

What was truly remarkable was that these ‘flaws’ had an extremely positive effect on the catalytic properties of the nanoburgers. ‘The defects serve as unique absorption sites for molecules,’ explains co-author Thomas Keller. ‘Molecules such as oxygen adhere very well to them, which increases the effectiveness of the catalyst.’ In the future, these findings could help industry to develop more efficient and effective catalysts – through deliberate ‘defect engineering’ to create as many binding sites as possible on the nanoparticles, where molecules can be converted.

Read more on DESY website

Image: The Nano-Burger in action: The two ‘halves‘ of the platinum-rhodium catalyst interact with reagents in this simulation.

Credit: Science Communication Lab for DESY

Researchers use Argonne X-rays to better understand the phases of a quantum material

Researchers use Argonne X-rays to better understand the phases of a quantum material

Understanding the mysterious properties of materials requires the ability to precisely measure the atoms of those materials as they go through changes. For example, scientists are not certain why quantum materials become superconducting at low temperatures. To find out, they need the most advanced instruments available to catch the atoms in the act. 

The Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory, is one such instrument. Or rather, it’s more than 70 such instruments, able to explore materials with a variety of X-ray techniques and, when needed, combine those techniques to deliver a more comprehensive result. 

“The integration of the improved beams, the sample environment and the combination of techniques available at the APS will make further breakthroughs with these materials possible.” – Philip J. Ryan, Argonne National Laboratory

Recently a collaboration between DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne used the ultrabright X-ray beams of the APS to uncover tantalizing insights about strontium titanate, a material that was once used as a diamond substitute in jewelry and now has the potential to unlock our understanding of an array of quantum behaviors.

The research team built extremely thin, flexible strontium titanate membranes and, using a sample apparatus developed by the beamline staff, stretched it, in the process turning on what is known as a ferroelectric state. In that state, the material generates its own electric field, somewhat similar to how a permanent magnet generates its own magnetic field. APS X-ray beams were able to capture the movement of the ions in the material as it was repeatedly strained to ​“tune” the material in and out of a ferroelectric state.

“Our apparatus allows us to precisely control the strain placed on the material,” said Yongseong Choi, a physicist who works at the APS. ​“That and the combination of X-ray techniques we used gave us an extraordinary insight into the behavior of this material as it transitions through controlled phases.”

The team used two beamlines at the APS. They performed linear X-ray dichroism at beamline 4-ID-Dto determine the change in the spacing between the atoms, and X-ray diffraction at beamline 6-ID-Bto determine the strain on the material. Combining these results enabled the team to precisely track the arrangement of electrons in the material as its positively charged titanium ions were separated from its negatively charged oxygen ions, creating an electric field. 

While the ability to turn on ferroelectricity — as well as superconductivity through the addition of impurities — makes strontium titanate promising for applications in next generation computing, data storage and superconducting devices, this well-known material also offers us a prototype to study fundamental quantum behaviors in a plethora of structurally similar materials.

What the research team found when they lowered the material temperature to cryogenic temperatures — lower than 200 degrees Fahrenheit below zero – was a transition into a quantum state. In this state, quantum fluctuations — random, temporary changes in energy levels — present themselves. At lower temperatures under applied strain strontium titanate began to shift to a state in which quantum fluctuations, rather than thermal motion, drove the order of nearby ions in the material.

Stretching the material is an excellent tuning parameter altering those quantum fluctuations. Introducing strain as a control element gives scientists more ways to explore the material’s properties. A better understanding of this transition could help researchers tailor strontium titanate and other quantum materials for different applications, such as microelectronic switches or capacitors.

Read more on APS website

Image: An artist’s illustration of X-ray probes of strontium titanate.

Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Magneto-ionic control of artificial antiferromagnets

Magneto-ionic control of artificial antiferromagnets

An international research collaboration, led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, has demonstrated the potential of magneto-ionics – control of magnetism via voltage-driven ion migration – to modulate the properties of artificial antiferromagnets. The study opens new avenues for spintronic devices. Experiments done at the ALBA Synchrotron were crucial to shed light on the mechanisms responsible for the magneto-ionic control of Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions.

Voltage-driven ion migration provides a powerful mechanism to modulate magnetism and spin-related phenomena in solids, offering significant potential for the development of energy-efficient next-generation micro- and nanoelectronic devices. Synthetic antiferromagnets, comprising two ferromagnetic layers antiferromagnetically coupled via a thin non-magnetic spacer, offer key advantages for spintronic applications, including enhanced thermal stability, reduced magnetostatic interactions, and robustness against external magnetic fields in magnetic tunnel junctions. Despite its technological promise, magneto-ionic control of antiferromagnetic coupling in multilayers remains largely unexplored and poorly understood, especially in systems that avoid reliance on platinum-group metals.

In a recent publication, scientists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Singulus Technologies (Germany), the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)  and the ALBA Synchrotron have demonstrated room-temperature voltage control of Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions in Cobalt/Nickel-based synthetic antiferromagnets.

The experiments reveal voltage-induced transitions between ferrimagnetic (uncompensated) and antiferromagnetic (fully compensated) states, along with notable modulation of the RKKY bias field offset, the emergence of additional switching events, and the formation of skyrmion-like domain bubbles under relatively low gating voltages.

These effects are attributed to voltage-driven oxygen migration within the multilayers, as confirmed by microscopic and spectroscopic analyses. X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) of the samples were performed at the BOREAS beamline of ALBA. XAS was used to characterize, at room temperature, the elemental composition and oxidation state of the films. The findings were crucial to understand the mechanisms of the magneto-ionic control of the synthetic antiferromagnet structures.

A new approach to optimize magnetic tunnel junctions

Magnetic tunnel junctions continue to face several key challenges that hinder their performance and scalability:

  • limited magnetic stability of the reference layer under external magnetic fields.
  • interlayer dipolar interactions, where the magnetic moment of the reference layer disturbs the magnetization reversal of the free layer, degrading device performance.
  • poor thermal stability across a wide temperature range.
  • restricted areal density, as scaling down the lateral dimensions of magnetic tunnel junctionsoften leads to superparamagnetic effects that compromise device reliability.

To address these limitations, synthetic antiferromagnets have been developed and widely adopted as reference layers in magnetic tunnel junctions. They are composed of two ferromagnetic layers coupled antiferromagnetically through a thin non-magnetic spacer (e.g., Ruthenium, Rhodium, or Iridium) via RKKY exchange coupling. Synthetic antiferromagnetsprovide multiple advantages: improved magnetic stability, reduced dipolar interactions (especially when the two ferromagnetic layers are magnetically compensated, eliminating stray fields), enhanced thermal robustness, and the potential for higher areal density and more compact device architectures.

For optimal magnetic tunnel junction performance, synthetic antiferromagnetsstructures exhibiting stronger antiferromagnetic coupling – i.e. larger RKKY exchange fields –are desirable, as they allow for a wider magnetic field window to pin the free layer magnetization without inducing unwanted magnetic interactions. Despite recent progress in the field, electric current-based magnetization switching schemes in magnetic tunnel junctions still pose challenges in terms of energy efficiency. Significant reduction of ohmic loss is envisaged by using voltage (or electric fields), instead of current, to control magnetism.

Thus, it is clear that the reported modulation of antiferromagnetically RKKY coupled multilayers with electric field is of great interest and technological relevance for magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) development. Magneto-ionic control of RKKY interactions offers a versatile platform for developing next-generation spintronic devices with low power consumption, non-volatility, and dynamic reconfigurability. By enabling voltage-driven tuning of interlayer magnetic coupling, this approach holds promise for applications in voltage-controlled MRAM, neuromorphic computing, and spintronic logic, where analog modulation and multi-state behavior are desirable. It also enhances the performance of magnetic sensors and spin valves by stabilizing antiparallel states and reducing power demands.

Read more on ALBA website