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Membrane proteins are essential for many biological processes in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. In the bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli), a protein called YaeT selects and folds other proteins before inserting them into the outer membrane of the cell. Tim Knowles and his colleagues at the University of Birmingham have been using Diamond Light Source to study protein solution structures in order to understand the processes by which they are targeted in the cell, and how they ...
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Liquid crystals are a state of matter that possesses some properties of liquids and some of solids. Their use in display screens is familiar, where the optical properties of the substance change in response to applied electric field. However, liquid crystals can form a wide range of very complex phases, and scientists have been using Diamond to study perhaps the most complex liquid crystal structure so far observed. This work has been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry.
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All living things propagate through the process of cell division. Histone proteins play a vital role in this complex process, but the exact molecular mechanisms that make it possible are not well understood. Histones act as spools for DNA, allowing it to wind around them to make compact packages that fit neatly into cells. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, have been studying how histones interact with a chaperone protein to answer the ...
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Shigella flexneri is a bacterium which causes dysentery, resulting in a million deaths worldwide every year. To infect humans, it uses a complex molecular machine which attaches itself to a host cell and uses a needle to pierce the cell membrane and deliver proteins that hijack cellular processes to facilitate infection. Scientists from the University of Oxford have been using Diamond to study how the machine identifies a host cell and triggers the transfer of proteins. This work is ...
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DNA is constantly under attack. Within the human body there is an army of proteins which can detect when DNA has been damaged and attempt to repair it. One such protein is Helicase XPD.
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During normal healthy cell division, the cell goes through a series of checkpoints to prevent abnormal or damaged cells from proceeding with division. But if one of these checkpoints is defective, chromosomal instability can result, leading to the growth of malignant cells. Scientists from the University of Manchester have been using Diamond to study a protein called Mps1, which regulates the number of chromosomes during the cell cycle, making it a potential target for new cancer treatments.
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Multiferroics are materials in which ferroelectric and magnetic orders are closely related, opening the possibility for tuning the first one with the other and vice versa. This class of material has attracted recent interest for their potential applications in memory devices and other electronic components. In addition there is a drive from a more fundamental perspective - to understand the fundamental physics that give rise to these exotic properties. By combining x-ray diffraction studies ...
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Professor Trevor Rayment and Dr Alison Davenport from the University of Birmingham have used the Microfocus Spectroscopy beamline I18 to carry out X-ray studies of corrosion that may help corrosion scientists understand the phenomenon of pit corrosion.
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Scientists from Newcastle University have solved the first de novo crystal structure of a protein using diffraction data from Diamond Light Source. The researchers successfully crystallised a protein called RsbS from the bacterium Moorella thermoacetica, and solved the crystal structure to 2.5 Å resolution.
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Metal oxyhydroxide nanoparticles form in many natural (e.g. rivers) and contaminated land environments. These mineral particles are an important part of the global iron cycle and, due to their high surface reactivity, adsorb large amounts of dissolved species onto their surfaces and into their structures during formation. These processes significantly influence the distribution, speciation and bioavailability of trace elements in many natural systems. This is particularly relevant in ...
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Zeolites are important nanoporous materials with many applications, including use in laundry detergents, as industrial catalysts and for cleaning up nuclear waste. Zeolites have a cage-like structure which enables them to trap charged particles called cations. Scientists from the University of Birmingham have been using Diamond to investigate new ways of locating cations and nanoparticles within different types of zeolites, this is important in order to understand and improve their use.
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Diamond Light Source, the UK's world-class synchrotron facility, has welcomed the first users to its new Test beamline. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London, have used the Diamond synchrotron to take a closer look at industrial diamonds as a means to test their latest collimator technology.
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Thin films produced by depositing pre-formed size-selected gas-phase nanoparticles are an important class of materials, particularly because of their application in magnetic memory. A team led by Chris Binns at the University of Leicester worked with the team on the Nanoscience beamline to study the magnetic properties of Fe thin films produced by this technique and compared them to Fe thin films produced by conventional techniques. Their results have been published in the Journal of ...
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Tuberculosis is a major cause of death worldwide, killing over 1.5 million people each year. Understanding how the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes disease in humans and how it survives in the body could provide the key to combating this killer disease. Scientists from the Universities of Oxford and British Columbia have used Diamond to determine the structure of a protein called HsaD, which enables the tuberculosis bacteria to survive in the human body. Knowing the structure of ...
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Nerves and blood vessels grow to the right places because they receive instructions to keep them on the correct path. These instructions come from pairs of molecules: receptors and ligands on the surface of different cells. When a matched pair makes contact in a specific ‘handshake’ it directs the cell carrying the receptor right or left, just like SatNav. If we understand what different handshakes look like, we can design drugs that to strengthen them – to help nerve regeneration, or stop ...
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Aurora-A is an essential enzyme which is required for human cells to multiply. Aurora-A has higher activity than normal in many human cancers and is a target for the development of anti-cancer drugs, some of which are in clinical trials. X-ray crystallography is used to characterise how these small molecules interact with Aurora-A, and these data provide information on how they work and allow the production of a new generation of more potent inhibitors.
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The first publication from Diamond Light Source utilised the synchrotron’s high intensity x-rays and a diamond-anvil cell on the Extreme Conditions beamline I15, to study the unique behaviour of sodium at high pressures. This research was carried out by a team from the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions at the University of Edinburgh, working in collaboration with the I15 beamline team.1
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Dr Paul Schofield is a researcher in mineral sciences in the Department of Mineralogy at the Natural History Museum (NHM). Paul used I18 to study a range of earth and life science specimens from the collections at the NHM. The spectroscopic data he obtained should provide an insight into natural processes, environmental systems and Earth and planetary history.
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The first users on the I22 Non-Crystalline Diffraction beamline, Professor Tim Wess and his team at the University of Cardiff, have been able to analyse the state of the collagen within parchment and its degenerative change to gelatine. Understanding the deterioration process will allow them how to preserve parchment for future generations. In cases where precious parchments may be too damaged or at risk, they have developed techniques to image written work without unrolling the fragile ...
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David Eastwood is a post-graduate student working with Professor Brian Tanner at the University of Durham. David used I16 to carry out detailed examinations of new sensors to be used in computer components that ‘read’ the magnetic information stored in its memory.
