Giant Virus, Tiny Protein Crystals Show X-Ray Laser's Power and Potential

The world's most powerful X-ray free-electron laser – the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), located at the DOE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – shows great potential in determining the 3D structure of proteins.

How does this work? Researchers shoot nanocrystals that contain proteins across an X-ray beam and pulse a laser at it. The photons bounce off the crystals at different angles and are scattered into an ultra-sensitive detector. The scattering pattern is used to create a structural image.

Another use of LCLS is to shoot the beams at viruses. This can give researchers an extremely detailed image of the outside and possibly genetic material inside the virus, details as small as one nanometer. The above image is the experimentally measured X-ray diffraction pattern of a single Mimivirus particle.

From what we have been told in class, I have come to learn that understanding the function and structure of proteins is essential to understanding how the body works physiologically. This article is a really great crossover into other classes I take as a RHE major, such as nuclear physics. The LCLS is also really cool because it instantly disintegrates samples, but the light is so fast that an image can be captured right before the sample essentially explodes.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110202132603.htm

Here's a link to the SLAC LCLS page, where there is a good video on how this particle accelerator works: http://www6.slac.stanford.edu/ExploringSlacScience.aspx?id=ultrasmall

Lainy Dromgoole - VTPP 435-502