Structural molecular biology

A new imaging technique is allowing researchers to pinpoint ways of modifying drugs to avoid side effects.

The X-ray laser movie shows what happens when light hits retinal, a key part of vision in animals and photosynthesis in microbes. The action takes place in a trillionth of an eye blink.

Tiny pores in the shells of archaea microbes attract ammonium ions that are their sole source of energy, allowing them to thrive where this food is so scarce that scientists can’t even detect it.

The National Institutes of Health center on the SLAC campus will make this revolutionary technology available to scientists nationwide and teach them how to use it to study 3D structures of biological machines and molecules.

The new facility provides revolutionary tools for exploring tiny biological machines, from viral particles to the interior of the cell.

With SLAC’s X-ray laser, a research team captured ultrafast changes in fluorescent proteins between “dark” and “light” states. The insights allowed the scientists to design improved markers for biological imaging.

The Scripps researcher is honored for groundbreaking research at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource that accelerated the development of a vaccine for deadly Lassa fever.

Over the next five years they’ll work on getting significantly more information about how catalysts work and improving biological imaging methods.

With SLAC’s X-ray laser and synchrotron, scientists measured exactly how much energy goes into keeping this crucial bond from triggering a cell's death spiral.

The method dramatically reduces the amount of virus material required and allows scientists to get results several times faster.

X-ray studies have produced surprising insights into the workings of a hormone receptor associated with blood pressure regulation that could be a target for new medicines related to cardiovascular conditions, neuropathic pain and tissue growth.

X-rays show details of an insect virus’s crystalline cocoon with sub-nanometer resolution.