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Our Mission
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 ~3 × 1010 photons per 100ps pulse delivered to the sample. Short X-ray pulses are synchronized with ps or ns laser pulses for conducting pump-probe time-resolved experiments. In recent years we developed and implemented these technologies that are now offered as standard methods to BioCARS users:
- Serial Laue micro-crystallography using fixed targets and crystal injectors to facilitate studies of irreversible reactions while minimizing sample consumption.
- Electric-field jump as a method for reaction initiation and studies of protein dynamics.
- Novel temperature-controlled sample cells for temperature-jump solution scattering studies.
- Sample-minimizing co-flow cell for time-resolved solution scattering studies of irreversible reactions.
The overall goal of time-resolved experiments at BioCARS is to understand basic biological processes in structural and dynamics terms, on time scales from 100 picoseconds to seconds.
Use of BioCARS is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant number P41 GM118217. Funding acknowledgement for publications resulting from use of BioCARS facility can be found here.
APS-U and BioCARS
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Recent Publications
Chan, A. M., Nijhawan, A. K., Hsu, D. J., Leshchev, D., Rimmerman, D., Kosheleva, I., Kohlstedt, K. L., and Chen, L. X.
The Role of Transient Intermediate Structures in the Unfolding of the Trp-Cage Fast-Folding Protein: Generating Ensembles from Time-Resolved X-ray Solution Scattering with Genetic Algorithms.
J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 14, 1133–1139 (2023).
(https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c03680)
Dalton, K. M., Greisman, J. B., and Hekstra, D. R.
A unifying Bayesian framework for merging X-ray diffraction data.
Nat Commun 13, 7764 (2022).
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35280-8)
Wilamowski, M., Sherrell, D. A., Kim, Y., Lavens, A., Henning, R. W., Lazarski, K., Shigemoto, A., Endres, M., Maltseva, N., Babnigg, G., Burdette, S. C., Srajer, V., and Joachimiak, A.
Time-resolved β-lactam cleavage by L1 metallo-β-lactamase.
Nat Commun 13, 7379 (2022).
(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35029-3)
Lee, S. J., Kim, T. W., Kim, J. G., Yang, C., Yun, S. R., Kim, C., Ren, Z., Kumarapperuma, I., Kuk, J., Moffat, K., Yang, X., and Ihee, H. (2022)
Light-induced protein structural dynamics in bacteriophytochrome revealed by time-resolved x-ray solution scattering.
Science Advances 8, eabm6278.
(https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm6278)
Moreno-Chicano et al. (2022)
Complementarity of neutron, XFEL and synchrotron crystallography for defining the structures of metalloenzymes at room temperature.
IUCrJ 9, 610–624.
(https://journals.iucr.org/m/issues/2022/05/00/rs5001/)
Latest News and Highlights
See also: APS Science Highlights
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...
Pink-beam serial crystallography
Meents, A., Wiedorn, M. O., Srajer, V., Henning, R., Sarrou, I., Bergtholdt, J., Barthelmess, M., Reinke, P. Y. A., Dierksmeyer, D., Tolstikova, A., Schaible, S., Messerschmidt, M., Ogata, C. M., Kissick, D. J., Taft, M. H., Manstein, D. J., Lieske, J., Oberthuer, D., Fischetti, R. F., and Chapman, H. N. Pink-beam serial crystallography. Nature Communications 8, 1281 (2017)
BioCARS welcomes new staff member Eric Zoellner
Eric will be the new Beamline Mechanical Technician for Sector 14.
Light-Induced Protein Structural Dynamics in Bacteriophytochrome Revealed by Time-Resolved X-ray Solution Scattering
Lee, S. J., Kim, T. W., Kim, J. G., Yang, C., Yun, S. R., Kim, C., Ren, Z., Kumarapperuma, I., Kuk, J., Moffat, K., Yang, X., and Ihee, H. (2022) Light-induced protein structural dynamics in bacteriophytochrome revealed by time-resolved x-ray solution scattering. Science Advances 8, eabm6278.