The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

To Your Health: Disease-Fighting Research at the APS

With an assist from data obtained at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, researchers have developed a method to spur the production of new antibiotic or antiparasitic compounds hiding in the genomes of actinobacteria, which are the source of drugs such as actinomycin and streptomycin and are known to harbor other untapped chemical riches.

Another discovery by users of the APS

Crystallographic evidence of the importance of water loading effects on a metal-organic framework that does not experience large-scale structural changes has been revealed by researchers using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source, with the potential for increasing their usefulness in important industrial and even medical applications.

A technology breakthrough at the Advanced Photon Source

A structure studied at the the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source and the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) contains two-dimensional atomic layers, and is of great interest for high-tech electronics.

A technology breakthrough at the Advanced Photon Source

A new study in part carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source demonstrates how a modified 3-D printing process provides a versatile approach to producing multiple colors from a single ink.

Research from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Photon Source

The crystalline compound ruthenium dioxide is widely used in industrial processes for catalyzing a chemical reaction that splits molecules of water and releases oxygen, but the exact mechanism that takes place on this material’s surface, and how that reaction is affected by the orientation of the crystal surfaces, had never been determined in detail, until now.

To Your Health: Disease-Fighting Research at the APS

Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the world; now researchers using the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source have found an unlikely source of inspiration for understanding how the human heart works and how we might design better drugs for conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: tarantulas.

Unlocking Secrets of the Novel Coronavirus with Research at the Advanced Photon Source

A key to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic is to learn how the virus attaches to receptors on human cells. Research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s APS at Argonne National Laboratory provides guidance for intervention strategies that target receptor recognition by the novel coronavirus.

Another discovery from research at the Advanced Photon Source

Understanding the primary mechanisms responsible for steel embrittlement caused by H₂ exposure should help materials scientists develop strategies to ameliorate this problem, which has important ramifications for hydrogen storage and transport, as well as being a prerequisite for realizing a future hydrogen economy.

Moving technology forward with research at the Advanced Photon Source

A team of engineers has created hardware made of hydrogen-doped nickelate perovskite that can learn skills using a type of AI that currently runs on software platforms. They used two U.S. Department of Energy x-ray light sources and a DOE nanoscale science research center to understand the microscopic origins of tree-like memory in the hydrogen-doped material.

Discoveries at the Advanced Photon Source, from Earth's center to the far reaches of space

Scientists used the U.S. Department of Energy’s APS to gather data that could aid in understanding the interiors of “super-Earths,” large rocky planets up to ~10 Earth masses in size recently discovered outside our solar system.

A technology breakthrough at the Advanced Photon Source

Ultra-high-speed transmission x-ray imaging at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source was used to gain vital new insights about laser powder bed fusion phenomena.

ARGONNE EXTENDS SITE RESTRICTIONS

Updated June 15, 2020

TRANSITION TO LIMITED OPS

On June 15, 2020, Argonne will start a phased, coordinated process to return to normal operations. The first phase of the transition – limited operations – will restart a select number of additional activities at the Advanced Photon Source (APS).

While onsite access remains prohibited for internal or external users for the majority of beamlines, additional limited user facility and CAT operations staff will be added to support remote research and facility R&D.

The APS user program is operational to support:

Research on SARS-CoV-2 or other COVID-19 related research that addresses the current pandemic.
Critical, proprietary pharmaceutical research.
Mail-in/remote access work for any research involving low-risk samples and most medium-risk samples (as defined on the ESAF form).
Limited in-situ research (set-up with one person, and ability to carry out majority of experiment safely remotely)

The health and safety of our employees, users, students, and visitors remains our top priority. As the public health situation improves, Argonne will eventually move to subsequent phases, which will bring more user activity back onsite. We will continue to monitor and adapt to changing conditions onsite, in the surrounding communities, in our state and nationwide. We will move forward, or back, across phases as needed as the situation evolves.

COVID-19 PORTAL

In light of the rapidly changing situation world-wide resulting from the coronavirus, the Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences light sources want to ensure they are doing everything possible to enable research into this virus and the search for an effective vaccine or other treatment. The DOE supports research into structural biology in partnership with the National Institutes of Health, and universities. A new webpage, The Structural Biology Portal, collects relevant x-ray, neutron, and cryoEM resources for structural biology in a single location, listing their basic characteristics and a point of contact for each.

EXPEDITED, RAPID ACCESS CALL FOR COVID-19 RESEARCH

The APS is providing expedited remote access for research related to COVID-19 at this time. The Structural Biology Portal lists available APS beamlines for macromolecular crystallography and BioSAXS. Step-by-step instructions on how to apply for expedited beam time are listed on the New User Checklist. All users must be registered and their home institution must have an active User Agreement.

Please submit a Rapid Access Proposal and state that the research is related to the SARS CoV-2 virus or COVID-19.

To request an MX beamline, submit a Macromolecular Crystallography Proposal (choose “rapid access 2020-2: for immediate work). Here is a list of MX beamlines.
To request a non-MX beamline, choose Rapid Access General User Proposal and select the 2020-2 cycle for immediate work.

For administrative assistance, please contact the APS User Office at apsuser@aps.anl.gov. For technical assistance, please contact Bob Fischetti at rfischetti@anl.gov.

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Press Release

IMCA-CAT Welcomes Janssen

The Industrial Macromolecular Crystallography Association (IMCA), which operates the IMCA-CAT facility at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source , announced that Janssen Research & Development, LLC, has joined IMCA, an association of pharmaceutical companies that leverages the power of high-energy X- rays to accelerate structural biology research for drug discovery.

Press Release

Northwestern, Argonne, and Partners to Launch National Resource to Unlock the Role of Metals in Human Health

The Chemistry of Life Processes Institute at Northwestern University, the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, and several leading research universities will join forces to launch a first-ever national hub for interdisciplinary, metallomics research and innovation, the Resource for Quantitative Elemental Mapping for the Life Sciences (QE-Map).

APS/User News

Novel Coronavirus Research at the Advanced Photon Source

When the crisis represented by COVID-19 became apparent, the world’s x-ray light sources, including the user facilities funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science, were quick to begin hosting essential studies of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, in the quest to develop medical therapeutics to combat the disease. The DOE's Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, the groups who operate x-ray facilities there, and the researchers who use those facilities were among the first to divert experimental resources to these critical investigations.

APS/User News

Clues to COVID-19 Coronavirus’s Vulnerability

An antibody recovered from a survivor of the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s has revealed a potential vulnerability of the new coronavirus at the root of COVID-19, according to a study carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Photon Source.