Filming ultrafast molecular motions in single crystal

A striking milestone unveiled the molecular reaction, shedding light on the intricate dance of atoms and the secrets of chemical transformations

27-Mar-2024 - Understanding the behavior of matter is crucial for advancing scientific fields like biology, chemistry, and materials science. X-ray crystallography has been instrumental in this pursuit, allowing scientists to determine molecular structures with precision. In traditional X-ray crystallography ...

Bruker Acquires Electron Microscopy Company

High-end STEM Technology Expands Bruker’s Portfolio for Materials Science Research

05-Jan-2024 - Bruker announced that it has acquired Nion, a privately-held company that develops and manufactures innovative high-end scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM). Nion was the first company to introduce aberration correction for STEM instruments with ultra-high stability for highest ...

Imaging the smallest atoms provides insights into an enzyme's unusual biochemistry

This could help in the design of enzymes for the chemical industry

29-Sep-2023 - When your wounds heal and your liver detoxifies a poison such as histamine you ingested, you can thank the class of enzymes known as copper amine oxidases for their assistance. Identifying the exact positions of the smallest hydrogen atoms in these enzymes is challenging with commonly used ...

Time-resolved crystallography for the masses

“The Spitrobot will greatly accelerate research in enzymatic mechanisms"

08-May-2023 - Scientists from four research institutes in the Science City Hamburg Bahrenfeld have joined forces to develop a ground-breaking experimental setup. Their new Spitrobot greatly simplifies observing changes in proteins as they carry out their functions. This makes time-resolved crystallography ...

Materials synthesis research and study in terapascal range for the first time

Traveling to the centre of planet Uranus

13-May-2022 - Jules Verne could not even dream of this: A research team from the University of Bayreuth, together with international partners, has pushed the boundaries of high-pressure and high-temperature research into cosmic dimensions. For the first time, they have succeeded in generating and ...

Crystal study may resolve DNA mystery

Rice lab captures unseen details of replication, clues to how mutations can happen

12-May-2022 - When cells reproduce, the internal mechanisms that copy DNA get it right nearly every time. Rice University bioscientists have uncovered a tiny detail that helps understand how the process could go wrong. Their study of enzymes revealed the presence of a central metal ion critical toDNA ...

The protective armor of superbug C.difficile revealed

Spectacular structure of chain-mail may explain the success of C.diff at defending itself against antibiotics and immune system molecules

01-Mar-2022 - The spectacular structure of the protective armour of superbug C.difficile has been revealed for the first time showing the close-knit yet flexible outer layer – like chain mail. This assembly prevents molecules getting in and provides a new target for future treatments, according to the ...

Crystallography for the misfit crystals

Advanced algorithms plus an exceptional X-ray laser can reveal the structures of not-so-neat-and-tidy materials unattainable by other techniques

24-Jan-2022 - Francis Crick, who famously co-discovered the shape of DNA, once said: “If you want to understand function, study structure.” Many decades later, this remains a tenet of biology, chemistry, and materials science. A key breakthrough in the quest for DNA’s structure came from X-ray crystallography, ...

Happy hour for time-resolved crystallography

Researchers simplify time-resolved X-ray crystallography

19-Sep-2019 - Researchers from the Department of Atomically Resolved Dynamics of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) at the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg, the University of Hamburg and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) outstation in the ...

Tiny spiders, big color

15-May-2018 - There's plenty that's striking about Phoroncidia rubroargentea, a species of spider native to Madagascar, starting with their size - at just three millimeters, they're barely larger than a few grains of salt. But the reason they caught Sarah Kariko's eye had more to do with their color. Unlike ...