Science Highlights

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. 

Science Highlight Archive Science Highlight Banner Images


Electronic Structure of O2-Bound Metal Sites in Biomimetic Model Complexes

Figure 4.

Dioxygen (O2), critical for many of our cellular processes, is carried and activated by a variety of enzymes.

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Easy to Get In, Hard to Get Out: X-ray Structure and Mechanism of RNA Polymerase II Stalled at an Antineoplastic Monofunctional Platinum-DNA Adduct

Cisplatin, a platinum-based anti-cancer drug, is a widely-used and effective cancer chemotherapy drug. It slows the growth of cancer cells by inhibiting transcription through DNA modification, creating chemical links that serve as a roadblock as the polymerase attempts to transcribe the DNA into RNA.

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Synchrotron X-ray Analysis Demonstrate Phosphate-Bound Gadolinium in Skin in Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis

Figure 1.

Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis, or NSF, is a relatively new disease in which the skin becomes hardened, joint movement becomes difficult and, in extreme cases, an excessive

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Collaborate on Science Highlights

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. 

SSRL User Office