Unraveling a Leukemia Thread

August 13, 2008

A potentially important step in the treatment of leukemia has been taken by researchers who used an x-ray beamline at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source to determine the structure of a receptor in the blood control system that, when damaged, is responsible for a variety of diseases, including certain types of leukemia and some inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma. This discovery helps to explain, for the first time, how this receptor is activated and could form a springboard for the development of new treatments.

Quantum Physics Makes Water Different

August 11, 2008

The lengths of bonds connecting water molecules demonstrate quantum effects and help explain some of water’s weirdness, according to research carried out at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source, combined with neutron data from Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, England, and a computer simulation. (Reprinted with permission from ScienceNews, copyright 2008)

Weird Oxygen Bonding under Pressure

August 8, 2008

Oxygen, the third most abundant element in the cosmos and essential to life on Earth, changes its form dramatically under pressure. Researchers using two x-ray beamlines at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source have gained new insights into the molecular interactions that occur as oxygen undergoes transitions, in particular the origin of a particular (and important) molecular cluster in the red-colored dense solid oxygen.

A Breakthrough in Improving Osteoporosis Drug Design

August 8, 2008

Current drug therapies for osteoporosis carry a variety of undesirable side effects. But relief may be closer now that researchers using an x-ray beamline at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne Advanced Photon Source have determined how a hormone that is used to treat osteoporosis precisely binds to its receptor. Drug developers can use this information to aid in the design of more potent therapies that lack side effects.

Allaying Structural-Alloy Corrosion

July 30, 2008

The search for ways to conserve energy is leading scientists to explore unexpected but important avenues. Argonne researchers using three U.S. Department of Energy facilities have developed a new alloy that could save over $1 billion per year in lost energy for the U.S. hydrogen industry alone.

Putting the Pressure on MOFs

July 30, 2008

Metal-organic framework (MOF) materials have a wide range of possible applications, from filtering, capturing, or detecting molecules such as carbon dioxide, to storing large amounts of hydrogen in a very small space for use in fuel cells for cars. But a better understanding of how MOFs react to real-world conditions outside of the controlled conditions of the laboratory is needed before such practical uses can be fully realized. Research at the Advanced Photon Source by scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory has important implications for the ways MOFs might be utilized.

Taking the FaST Track to Synchrotron X-ray Science

July 30, 2008

From the time of Roentgen’s first experiments with x-rays in 1895, this invisible light have afforded an opportunity to visualize the unseen. Now, three undergraduate students and their mentor, who are spending their summer doing research at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source as part of the Faculty and Student Teams Program, are seeing science in a whole new light.