I am delighted to serve as interim ALS division director in the wake of Roger Falcone’s departure. I want first to thank Roger for his wonderful leadership. Over my 35 years of service, it has been exhilarating to see the ALS develop into a powerhouse facility that has attracted an exceptional staff and user community, and I look forward to working with staff and users on all ALS and ALS-U activities. Read more »
ALSNews Vol. 390
January 31, 2018
Fuel from the Sun: Insight into Electrode Performance
The mechanisms limiting the performance of hematite electrodes—potentially key components in producing fuel from the sun—have been clarified in interface-specific studies under realistic operating conditions, bringing us a step closer to storing solar energy in chemical fuels. Read more »
Modified Antibody Clarifies Tumor-Killing Mechanisms
An antibody was modified to activate a specific pathway of the immune system, demonstrating its value in killing tumor cells. The work provides a platform for disentangling different immune-system pathways and could lead to the design of improved immunotherapies. Read more »
Genentech Advances Research Toward Better Medicines to Lower Cholesterol
Genentech has been working in collaboration with the ALS for years with the goal of identifying a better cholesterol treatment mechanism that targets a cholesterol-regulating protein in the body known as PCSK9. Recent advances in understanding PCSK9’s structure have put them closer to that goal. Read more »
A Path to a Game-Changing Battery Electrode
If you add more lithium to the positive electrode of a lithium-ion battery, it can store much more charge in the same amount of space, theoretically powering an electric car 30 to 50 percent farther between charges. But these lithium-rich cathodes quickly lose voltage, and years of research have not been able to pin down why—until now. Read more »
Ferromagnetism Emerges to Alleviate Polar Mismatch
A polar mismatch between nonferromagnetic materials drives an electronic reconstruction in which interfacial ferromagnetism is induced. The emergence of such functionality at interfaces could enable new types of electronics for a range of applications, including logic, memory, sensing, and more. Read more »
New Small-Molecule Crystallography Beamline Achieves First Light
Beamline 12.2.1, the successor to Beamline 11.3.1, achieved first light on December 21, 2017. This new small-molecule crystallography beamline, which will take over the scientific program of 11.3.1, features a number of improvements that will significantly expand the capabilities available to users. Read more »
Sergey Nikitin, Optical Metrology Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoc researcher Sergey Nikitin has been at the ALS since February 2017, working in the X-Ray Optics Laboratory (XROL), where he’s researching and developing new optical metrology tools and methods. Read more »
Save the Date: 2018 ALS User Meeting to be Held October 2–4
This year’s ALS User Meeting, which celebrates 25 years of light at the ALS, will feature special keynotes focused on the ALS’s past, present, and future. UEC members Jennifer Ciezak-Jenkins, Alex Frañó, and Michael Jacobs are also revamping the format to include a new “tutorial day” featuring introductory and advanced sessions. Stay tuned for more details! Read more »
March 2018 Call for General User Proposals
The User Office is accepting new General User Proposals (GUPs) from scientists who wish to conduct research at the ALS in the 2018-2 (August–December) cycle. The deadline for submissions is March 7, 2018. Applicants are reminded that they may request joint access to the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility at Berkeley Lab, to support their ALS activities. Read more »
