SRS HOME

NEWS & EVENTS

REPORTS & DOCUMENTS

PUBLICATIONS

USER INFORMATION

VISITOR INFORMATION

TECHNIQUES

STATIONS

STATION PLAN

BEAMSTATUS

SRS ACTIVITIES

CONTACT US

LINKS

SITE MAP

SRS mobile

• Agreements»
• News Archive07 »
• News Archive05 »
• News Archive04 »
• News Archive03 »
• News Archive02 »
• Meetings & Seminars »
• Worldwide Calendar »

ARCHIVE
NEWS AND EVENTS 2006

19/12/06

4GLS: dynamics
Future Prospects for Macromolecular Dynamics on
4th Generation Light Sources
26 - 27 January 2007

…website & registration »
…pdf flyer »

01/11/06

CEO of the MND Association visits Daresbury Laboratory

On October 31st 2006 Dr. Kirstine Knox, Chief Executive of the Motor Neuron Disease Association, paid a visit to Daresbury Laboratory to meet with members of the Molecular Biophysics Group, whose work on superoxide dismutase is supported by the MNDA.

On the same day, the MNDA also announced a new research funding initiative, the MNDA Research Foundation, which aims to raise £10M for scientific and clinical research over the next 5 years.

MNDA Research Foundation
http://www.mndassociation.org/news_and_events/news_room/press_releases/pioneering_mnd.html

MNDA web site
http://www.mndassociation.org/

18/10/06

High Pressure Studies on 16.2smx on front cover of Chemical Communications

…more information »

18/10/06

Low Energy Detector Roadmap Review

…more information »

19/09/06

Opening of Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus

Two international science and innovation campuses at Daresbury and Harwell, launched today at Daresbury by Lord Sainsbury, Minister for Science and Innovation, will act as a major new UK driver for two-way high-tech knowledge transfer between scientific research and business.

"Access to large scientific facilities is a very rapidly increasingly international area and the government is keen to ensure that UK scientists have access to as many world-class facilities as possible. They see the development of Science and Innovation campuses, at Daresbury and Harwell as integral to this aim", said CCLRC Deputy Chief Executive Colin Whitehouse.

14/09/06

Allocation Period 48

Applications are now invited for SRS beam-time in AP48 (April 07-September 07)
CLOSING DATE - 1^st November 2006 - Now closed for applications.
…application forms »

New Large Facilities Research Council

On 25 July 2006 DTI announced the creation of a new Large Facilities Council, principally through a merger of CCLRC and PPARC.  …more information »

CCLRC Press Release …"The creation of a new Research Council" »

23/08/06

Nanotechnology - Enabling Safer Body Armour for Real Life

The threat posed by global terrorism, at home and abroad, often means that police and army personnel, journalists reporting from war zones and civilianrescue workers have to wear body armour capable of stopping high velocity projectiles such as bullets and bombshrapnel.

Integral body armour has evolved a long way since the 1960s when the ability of alumina ceramics to withstand bullet impacts was discovered. Modern armour is now much more sophisticated, using advanced materialssuch as Kevlar and glass fibres together with ceramic and carbon epoxy.The current armour can take multiple hits, provides good fire and smoke resistance and has lowtoxicity characteristics, a vast improvement on that of the 1960s. However, modern armour generally relies on a ceramic layer to take almost all of the ballistic impact.The use of such materials compromises the weight and flexibility of armour in the field.

Research conducted by the CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory, Liverpool University, Tuskegee University (Alabama, USA) and Florida Atlantic University (USA) has validated the possibility of utilising nanotechnology in the design of new materials which will ultimately enable the production of flexible light-weight body armour.

Dr. Graham Beamson   g.beamson@dl.ac.uk
Dr. Vinod Dhanak           vin@liverpool.ac.uk

read the rest of this article »
(Images courtesy of Prof. Mahafuz - Florida Atlantic University and Prof. Jeelani - Tuskegee University)

23/08/06

First Beam From the Photoinjector on ERLP

At 01:08 on Wednesday 16^th August the 4GLS Team achieved first beam from the photoinjector on ERLP.

I would particularly like to draw attention to the great work of Susan Smith who is leading the commissioning team and who has very successfully driven this aspect of the project. Underpinning this success is, not surprisingly, more than 2 years of design and construction work under demanding circumstances by many people across several CCLRC Departments.

This is the first of the ERLP major milestones and it's a great achievement for all.

Elaine Seddon (4GLS Project Leader)

12/07/06

EU Funding for Scientific Exchange Visits

An opportunity exists for partial funding to support scientific exchange visits between institutions within the EU and associated counties. The aim of the initiative is to encourage academic participation at synchrotron and FEL facilities and to help develop the careers of beamline scientists.

The IA-SFS (Integrating Activity on Synchrotron and Free Electron Laser Science) project administers the programme in this area and further details, including an application web form, can be found at the IA-SFS website:
www.elettra.trieste.it/I3/index.php?n=Main.N3ThirdCall

The key points to note are:

• the host and home institutions must be in different countries, but both within the EU, associated countries or candidate countries
• the visit should be for between 4 weeks and 4 months
• the proposed exchange must take place between March 1^st 2007 - February 28^th 2009
• the deadline for applications is September 30^th 2006

If you have any questions not answered by the website please let me know.

Steve Bennett (s.l.bennett@dl.ac.uk)
CCLRC IA-SFS Project Manager

11/07/06

4GLS User Meeting
8 September 2006

The purpose of the meeting is to inform and consult with, potential users on the design of 4GLS, following the recent publication of the Conceptual Design Report.
A number of international experts will give presentations describing the key science that will be achieved.
Discussion sessions will ensure the the evolving aspirations of the user community continue to be met as the detailed design parameters are confirmed.
…website »
…pdf flyer »

26/06/06

Synchrotron Radiation Meeting 2006

The SR User meeting 2006 will take place on the 12 and 13 September 2006, at Diamond Light Source, Chilton, Oxfordshire …website »

08/06/06

The Chadwick Library is now fully stocked and up and running…

Its new location is on the ground floor of B-block next to Media Services and the Communications Group. Open to all staff and visitors - call at any time to browse, work, study, network, meet, drink, think etc!
quiet space to work and study | wireless network | PCs to access online information | reading area with latest journals and newspapers | over 3500 books | Learning & Development resources (coming shortly …)

07/06/06

New Scientific Possibilities with High Power THz Sources

Holiday Inn Runcorn, 29 - 30 June 2006
A workshop to explore theory and experiements exploiting fourth generation light sources.
Workshop Website and Registration »

13/04/06

4GLS Conceptual Design Report
available »

This report covers design work and ethos for 4GLS to date. Further design activities will continue over the coming year and your comments and thoughts on any aspect of the report are very welcome.

17/03/06

Allocation Period 47

Applications are now invited for SRS beam-time in AP47(October 2006 - March 2007)
CLOSING DATE - 1^st May 2006

15/03/06

High pressure powder diffraction data collection just got faster!

SRS Station 9.5 HPT has been developed over the past year to provide a dedicated station for high pressure powder diffraction. The high pressure is generated by compressing a sample between two diamonds (the so-called diamond anvil cell). X-rays pass through the first diamond anvil, are diffracted by the sample, then pass through the second diamond to be collected using an image plate from which the intensity and diffraction angle are measured. An 80-fold increase in incident X-ray flux was achieved last year using a focusing monochromator developed in-house at Daresbury Laboratory by David Laundy. Now, a mar345 in-line image plate X-ray detector has been installed by Alistair Lennie (Station Scientist, Station 9.5 HPT), and within days has contributed to the discovery of a new high pressure phase.

Having increasing the incident flux, it was the data readout rather than data collection that was the rate limiting step, but because the mar345 detector speeds up data read-out by a factor of 20, the time taken for these two fundamental steps are now well matched. Combined with the increase in X-ray flux, rapid screening of sample structures is made possible by quickly collecting and analysing powder diffraction data after changes in pressure and/or temperature have been made. Diffraction patterns can be collected with exposures of less than two minutes, and reading the image now takes only 90 seconds. Integration of the powder pattern allows full use of all of the data collected.

Just days after the new detector was installed, researchers have taken advantage of these developments by screening structures of selected compounds crystallised under high pressure while contained within diamond anvil cells. This demonstrates how the rapid turnaround resulting from both enhanced X-ray flux and rapid data readout is expected to contribute to the characterisation of known and novel high-pressure phases.

The images show the mar345 camera located on Station 9.5 HPT, and the diffraction pattern of a sample contained in a diamond anvil cell. (click on the image to view larger version)

06/03/2006

Molecular Biophysics Group make Front Cover
of the Journal of Molecular Biology

In a recent JMB paper (March 10th 2006, vol 356, 1152-1162) , we present data that support the possibility that in a cellular environment with low availability of free copper, Zn-Zn may be the preferred metallation state of SOD1 prior to its interaction with the copper chaperone. We obtained atomic resolution crystal structures (the highest is 1.07 Å, obtained using BL10.1) and biophysical data for human SOD1 in three metallation states: Zn-Zn, Cu-Zn and `as-isolated’. These data represent the first atomic resolution structures for human SOD1, the first structure of a reduced SOD1, and the first structure of a fully Zn-substituted SOD1 enzyme. The Zn-Zn SOD1 dimer appears to be as stable as the native Cu-Zn protein and would avoid problems associated with aggregation of apo-enzyme.

Human Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) protects cells from the effects of oxidative stress. Single point mutations of SOD1 are linked to the familial form of motor neuron disease, a fatal progressive neurodegenerative disorder for which there is currently no cure. Several hypotheses for SOD1 mutant toxicity involve the mis-metallation of the enzyme and our previous work has shown that amyloid-like filaments can be formed from metal depleted wild-type protein (J. Mol. Biol. 328, 887-891 2003).

This work was funded by the Motor Neuron Disease Association U.K. ( www.mndassociation.org )

Journal of Molecular Biology, issue for March 10th, Vol 356 issue 5.
The full reference is:
Strange, R. W., Antonyuk, S., Hough, M. A., Doucette, P. A., Valentine, J. S.
& Hasnain, S. S. (2006). Variable metallation of human superoxide dismutase: atomic
resolution crystal structures of Cu-Zn, Zn-Zn and As-isolated wild-type enzymes.
J. Mol. Biol. 356, 1152-1162

01/02/2006

EU project “SAXIER” launched

SAXIER is an initiative of Europe’s main small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) laboratories based at synchrotrons to explore novel scientific applications for the new generation of SAXS beamlines. The project is coordinated by the EMBL Hamburg Outstation as a Design Study under the Infrastructure programme of the EU Framework Programme 6 (FP6). The kick-off meeting consisted of reports from the five partner institutes involved in eight work packages. Also the EU project officer for this project gave advice and guidance in specific issues and provided insights into the changes between FP6 and the proposed FP7. A workshop for the dissemination of work done by the SAXIER consortium will be organized as a satellite meeting to the next ESRF User meeting in February 2007.

SAXIER people (right to left): Dimitri Svergun (EMBL Hamburg, co-ordinator), Manfred Roessle (EMBL Hamburg), Margret Fischer (EMBL Hamburg, project secretary), Oleg Konovalov (ESRF), Christian Riekel (ESRF), Maria Douka (EU project officer), Günter Grossmann (DL), Javier Perez (Soleil), Maxim Petoukhov (EMBL Hamburg), Heinz Amenitsch (IBR), Peter Laggner (IBR) and Samar Hasnain (DL)

• www.saxier.org
• www.embl-hamburg.de
• www.esrf.fr
• www.synchrotron-soleil.fr
• www.ibr.oeaw.ac.at
• europa.eu.int/comm/index_en.htm

27/01/06

First LJMU Registered Student of the Molecular Biophysics Group
Completes His PhD

Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos recently completed his Ph.D. viva at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU).This is Professor Samar Hasnain's first PhD student from LJMU. Previous PhD students were registered at De Montfort University, Leicester. Professor Michael Brown, vice chancellor of Liverpool John Moore's University marked the occasion by congratulating Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos personally.

Dr. Konstantinos Paraskevopoulos begins his post doctoral career from March 2006 when he joins EMBL in Hamburg.

• Molecular Biophysics Group
• Liverpool John Moores University
• EMBL - Hamburg