Mutation of the gene coding for the BRAF kinase, an important enzyme in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway, can lead to melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer. The pharmaceutical company Plexxikon has developed drugs, like vemurafenib, that treat metastatic melanoma harboring BRAF mutation.
Approximately 1,700 scientists visit SSRL annually to conduct experiments in broad disciplines including life sciences, materials, environmental science, and accelerator physics. Science highlights featured here and in our monthly newsletter, Headlines, increase the visibility of user science as well as the important contribution of SSRL in facilitating basic and applied scientific research. Many of these scientific highlights have been included in reports to funding agencies and have been picked up by other media. Users are strongly encouraged to contact us when exciting results are about to be published. We can work with users and the SLAC Office of Communication to develop the story and to communicate user research findings to a much broader audience. Visit SSRL Publications for a list of the hundreds of SSRL-related scientific papers published annually. Contact us to add your most recent publications to this collection.
February 2016
Macromolecular Crystallography
February 2016
The list of mechanical and electronic uses for oxide materials is continuously growing, piquing researchers’ interest in how the microscopic properties of these materials affect their functionalities. Oxygen vacancies, which affect electron hopping, have long been identified as a defect in oxide compounds, but researchers now view them as a way to create new, potentially useful, behaviors.
X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy
BL13-3
January 2016
The widespread adoption of renewable energy in many applications, such as electric cars, is dependant on the development of better batteries. A lithium ion battery can be made to have a higher capacity, better thermally stability, and lower cost by changing the cobalt component of the battery cathode (usually LiCoO2) to a mixture of nickel, manganese, and cobalt. While providing great benefits, this material, known as NMC, also has a downside: increased reactivity at the cathode resulting in a shorter battery lifetime. To counteract this reactivity, scientists at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado developed a coating for the NMC cathode.
X-ray diffraction
BL4-1
January 2016
Ion transport across the hydrophobic barrier of the cell membrane is central to life. Biological membranes are hydrophobic barriers that are impermeable to ionic species. Thus, ionic movements across these membranes require catalysis by specific proteins situated at the membranes such as ion channels and transporters. CLC transporters are such proteins that facilitates transport of chloride (Cl-) and protons (H+) across biological membranes.
Macromolecular Crystallography
BL12-2
November 2015
While translocator proteins (TSPO) are clearly important for diverse organisms ranging from bacteria to humans, their roles in cells are not yet fully understood. TSPO is positioned in the outer mitochondrial membrane and binds small molecules, such as benzodiazepine, cholesterol, and porphyrin molecules. It has been implicated as having a role in a number of human diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, as well as inflammation and tumor growth.
Macromolecular Crystallography
BL12-2
October 2015
Scientists have developed a goniometer-based system to study radiation-sensitive macromolecular complexes.
Macromolecular Crystallography
BL12-2
October 2015
Scientists have determined the 3-D structure of a complex of synaptic proteins that controls the release of signaling chemicals from brain cells in less than one-thousandth of a second, which ultimately could help unlock a new realm of drug research targeting brain disorders.
Macromolecular Crystallography
XPP
September 2015
Conventional electronics encode information using the charge of electrons. Spin transport electronics, or spintronics, seeks to encode information using the spin of electrons, up or down. Spintronics has the potential to be more efficient and more reliable, especially as electronic components become smaller. To advance the field, the mechanics of spin transport from one material to another needs to be understood. In a study that develops methods for studying spin transport, a team of scientists looked at how spin information travels between a spin signal source (a ferromagnet) and a non-magnetic material that transports the signal.
BL13-1
September 2015
A superconductor can carry an electrical current with no resistance, so no energy is lost. This quantum mechanical effect was first discovered in certain materials when cooled to very low temperatures, with the highest record at -250°C. In 1986, a class of high temperature superconductor (HTSC) materials was discovered called cuprates, which show superconducting properties at temperatures as high as -135°C. More recently, superconductivity was found in some iron-containing compounds known as iron-based superconductors (FeSCs).
Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy
BL5-4
August 2015
Bonds between carbon and hydrogen atoms are ubiquitous in organic molecules important for life. Generally considered to be unreactive, C-H bonds are not easily activated so that the hydrogen can be replaced with a different chemical group. A mechanism that would allow chemists to selectively activate C-H bonds to become reactive would open up numerous new possibilities for synthetic chemistry and is the subject of intense studies.
BL7-3
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