On January 22, the third in a series of online ALS user forums was held on the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) project. Presentations included an overview of the project, an update on the ALS-U beamline selection process, and ideas for the future of soft matter research at the ALS. The next forum will be held Thursday, March 1, at 10 a.m. PT. Read more »
ALSNews Vol. 390
January 31, 2018
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 »
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 »
New Year’s Message from Interim Director Steve Kevan
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 »
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 »
ALS in the News (January 2018)
- Diabetes makes bones less bendable, more prone to fracture
- X-ray experiments suggest high tunability of 2-D material
- It all starts with a ‘spark’: Berkeley Lab delivers injector that will drive x-ray laser upgrade
- Scientists discover material ideal for smart photovoltaic windows
- Let the good tubes roll
- Doudna honored by National Academy of Sciences
- Coupling experiments to theory to build a better battery
- X-rays reveal ‘handedness’ in swirling electric vortices
- Ingredients for life revealed in meteorites that fell to earth
- Something in the air: Synchrotron study reveals oxygen’s influence on the chemistry that surrounds us
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »