Argonne Site Access Requirements
Click the following link for information:
APS Operations and General User Programs During the COVID Pandemic
Our Mission
BioCARS is a national user facility for synchrotron-based, dynamic studies in structural biology, located at Sector 14 of the Advanced Photon Source, at Argonne National Laboratory. BioCARS is an integral part of the multi-disciplinary Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS) run by the University of Chicago.
Structural biology at BioCARS is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P41 GM118217.
The mission of BioCARS is to provide state-of-the-art X-ray facility, scientific and technical expertise and support to enable users to study the dynamic properties of biological macromolecules by X-ray scattering techniques: time-resolved diffraction and solution scattering (SAXS/WAXS). In hybrid mode of the APS storage ring, BioCARS 14-ID beamline provides high polychromatic flux, with a number of photons per 100ps pulse approaching that of free electron lasers (such as the LCLS). Short X-ray pulses are synchronized with ps or ns laser pulses for conducting pump-probe time-resolved experiments. We are currently developing methods for serial Laue micro-crystallography to facilitate studies of irreversible reactions while minimizing sample consumption. We are also implementing electric-field jump as a method for reaction initiation and studies of protein dynamics. The overall goal of time-resolved experiments is to understand basic biological processes in structural and dynamics terms, on time scales from 100 picoseconds to seconds.
*As of February 6, 2017, BioCARS facility is decommissioned as a BSL-3 laboratory. BioCARS is now approved for research up to the BSL-2 level.
Quick Links
- User Resources
- Apply for beamtime
- Login into My APS Portal
- Register as an APS user (new or returning)
- APS On-site User Request Form
- APS proposal deadlines
- APS operation schedule
- Argone Guest House
- APS safety training (remote access)
- Experiment Safety Approval Form
- Shipping to BioCARS
- End of Experiment Form
- APS Publication Database
- APS Upgrade
Recent Publications
Biju, L. M., Wang, C., Kang, W., Tom, I. P., Kumarapperuma, I., Yang, X., and Ren, Z. (2022)
On-chip Crystallization and Large-Scale Serial Diffraction at Room Temperature.
JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) e63022.
(https://www.jove.com/t/63022/on-chip-crystallization-large-scale-serial-diffraction-at-room)
Li, J., Zhu, Y., Yu, H., Dai, B., Jun, Y.-S., and Zhang, F. (2021)
Microbially Synthesized Polymeric Amyloid Fiber Promotes β-Nanocrystal Formation and Displays Gigapascal Tensile Strength.
ACS Nano 15, 11843–11853.
(https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.1c02944)
Carrillo, M. et al. (2021)
High-resolution crystal structures of transient intermediates in the phytochrome photocycle.
Structure 29, 743-754.e4.
(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969212621000770)
Choi, M., Kim, J. G., Muniyappan, S., Kim, H., Kim, T. W., Lee, Y., Lee, S. J., Kim, S. O., and Ihee, H. (2021)
Effect of the abolition of intersubunit salt bridges on allosteric protein structural dynamics.
Chem. Sci. 12, 8207–8217.
(https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sc/d1sc01207j)
Bandara, S., Rockwell, N. C., Zeng, X., Ren, Z., Wang, C., Shin, H., Martin, S. S., Moreno, M. V., Lagarias, J. C., and Yang, X. (2021)
Crystal structure of a far-red–sensing cyanobacteriochrome reveals an atypical bilin conformation and spectral tuning mechanism.
(https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2025094118)
Latest News and Highlights
Effect of Occluded Ligand Migration on the Kinetics and Structural Dynamics of Homodimeric Hemoglobin
Kim, H., Kim, J. G., Muniyappan, S., Kim, T. W., Lee, S. J., and Ihee, H. Effect of Occluded Ligand Migration on the Kinetics and Structural Dynamics of Homodimeric Hemoglobin. J. Phys. Chem. B 124, 1550–1556 (2020)
Temperature-jump solution X-ray scattering reveals distinct motions in a dynamic enzyme
Thompson, M. C., Barad, B. A., Wolff, A. M., Cho, H. S., Schotte, F., Schwarz, D. M. C., Anfinrud, P., and Fraser, J. S. Temperature-jump solution X-ray scattering reveals distinct motions in a dynamic enzyme. Nat. Chem. 11, 1058–1066 (2020)
High-viscosity injector-based pink-beam serial crystallography of microcrystals at a synchrotron radiation source
Martin-Garcia, J. M., Zhu, L., Mendez, D., Lee, M.-Y., Chun, E., Li, C., Hu, H., Subramanian, G., Kissick, D., Ogata, C., Henning, R., Ishchenko, A., Dobson, Z., Zhang, S., Weierstall, U., Spence, J. C. H., Fromme, P., Zatsepin, N. A., Fischetti, R. F., Cherezov, V., and Liu, W. High-viscosity injector-based pink-beam serial crystallography of microcrystals at a synchrotron radiation source. IUCrJ 6, 412–425 (2019)
2019 Science Careers in Search of Women Conference, Tour of BioCARS
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...
Crystal-on-crystal chips for in situ serial diffraction at room temperature
Ren, Z., Ayhan, M., Bandara, S., Bowatte, K., Kumarapperuma, I., Gunawardana, S., Shin, H., Wang, C., Zeng, X., and Yang, X. Crystal-on-crystal chips for in situ serial diffraction at room temperature. Lab Chip 18, 2246–2256 (2018)
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...
Time-Resolved X-ray Scattering Studies of Proteins
Cho, H. S., Schotte, F., Stadnytskyi, V., and Anfinrud, P. (2021) Time-resolved X-ray scattering studies of proteins.
Current Opinion in Structural Biology 70, 99–107.
Effect of the Abolition of Intersubunit Salt Bridges on Allosteric Protein Structural Dynamics
Choi, M., Kim, J. G., Muniyappan, S., Kim, H., Kim, T. W., Lee, Y., Lee, S. J., Kim, S. O., and Ihee, H. (2021) Effect of the abolition of intersubunit salt bridges on allosteric protein structural dynamics.
Chem. Sci. 12, 8207–8217