BioCARS News
Science Careers in Search of Women Conference, Tour of BioCARS
April 11 2019
On April 11, 2019, ANL hosted the annual Science Careers in Search of Women Conference (SCSW) and CARS was part of the tour. High-school students from across the Chicago area were provided with the unique opportunity to learn more about STEM careers, in an effort to increase the representation of women in the science and technology fields. At BioCARS, Dr. Vukica Srajer talked to students about applications of time-resolved crystallography and solution scattering techniques to biological and biomedical research. These techniques are used by scientists at BioCARS facility to capture health-related biological macromolecules in action in real time in order to advance our understanding of their structure and function.
New BioCARS Director, Prof. Rama Ranganathan
December 2017
Distinguished biophysicist Rama Ranganathan joined University of Chicago as a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Institute for Molecular Engineering. He is the new Director of BioCARS facility and will also lead the new Center for Physics of Evolving Systems at the University of Chicago. Prof. Ranganathan lead recent development of electric field-stimulated X-ray crystallography, where brief, external voltage pulses introduce perturbation in the protein molecules in the crystal and induce structural changes which are monitored by time-dependent X-ray diffraction. Aimed at stimulating motions within proteins and visualizing those motions in real time at atomic resolution, this approach makes it possible to create video-like images of proteins in action. Applications to important biological systems such as voltage-gated ion channels are clear.
Science Careers in Search of Women Conference, Tour of BioCARS
MAY 2, 2017
As in previous years, BioCARS participated again in the ANL-hosted annual Science Careers in Search of Women Conference this year (Click here for more). Participants were provided with the unique opportunity to learn more about STEM careers, in an effort to increase the representation of women in the science and technology fields. At BioCARS, the students spoke to Dr. Irina Kosheleva about time-resolved macromolecular crystallography and solution scattering. Students walked away with a better understanding of the synchrotron facilities and importance of X-ray scattering techniques for understanding structure and function of health-related biological macromolecules.
BioCARS User Publication is One of 20 Most Read Articles in Structural Dynamics in 2016
Feb. 22 2017
Time-resolved solution scattering studies of a homodimeric hemoglobin conducted at BioCARS 14-ID beamline linked the perturbation in the water cluster at the dimer interface to the kinetics and structures of intermediate states in this hemoglobin.
View on Structural Dynamics site
Kim, J. G., Muniyappan, S., Oang, K. Y., Kim, T. W., Yang, C., Kim, K. H., Kim, J., and Ihee, H. (2016)
Cooperative protein structural dynamics of homodimeric hemoglobin linked to water cluster at subunit interface revealed by time-resolved X-ray solution scattering
Structural Dynamics 3, 023610.
abstract