A Head Start on the Next Pandemic

Investigating viruses with spillover potential could give us a head start on the next pandemic and minimize its severity; one such virus is RshTT200, discovered in Cambodian bats in 2010. During ACA’s 73rd annual meeting, July 7-11, Samantha Zepeda from the University of Washington will present her team’s investigation into RshTT200. The team used cryo-electron microscopy to solve the spike protein structure. Once the spike proteins were understood, they built harmless, nonreplicating pseudoviruses expressing the spike proteins to investigate how RshTT200 accesses human cells.

Killing Cancer in a Flash

FLASH is a targeted radiation therapy that kills tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue and delivers a short, intense burst of radiation in a single appointment. Corie Ralston from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will present her team’s research using X-ray footprinting mass spectrometry to investigate the mechanisms that make FLASH a powerful cancer killer at ACA’s 73rd annual meeting, July 7-11.

Three Argonne researchers inducted into AAAS

John Mitchell, Valerie Taylor and Lisa Utschig were selected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to be inducted as fellows.

Entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory opens applications for startups

Chain Reaction Innovations, the entrepreneurship program at Argonne National Laboratory, is accepting applications for its next fellowship cohort.

Advanced Photon Source helps reveal how antibodies bind a molecule linked to cancer

Researchers have developed antibodies that can bind to phosphohistidine, an unstable molecule that’s linked to cancer. To learn how the two bind together, the team turned to the powerful X-rays at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source. These new insights into its structure will help scientists design better antibodies for potential treatments.

Shiny mega-crystals that build themselves

An international team led by Empa and ETH Zurich researchers is playing with shape-engineered nanoscale building blocks that are up to 100-times larger than atoms and ions. And although these nano “Lego bricks” interact with each other with forces vastly different and much weaker than those holding atoms and ions together, they form crystals all by themselves, the structures of which resemble the ones of natural minerals. These new mega-crystals or superlattices that are depicted on the cover of the latest issue of “Nature” exhibit unique properties such as superfluorescence – and may well usher in a new era in materials science

The Odd Structure of ORF8: Scientists Map the Coronavirus Protein Linked to Disease Severity

A team of biologists who banded together to support COVID-19 science determined the atomic structure of a coronavirus protein thought to help the pathogen evade and dampen response from human immune cells. The structural map has laid the groundwork for new antiviral treatments and enabled further investigations into how the newly emerged virus ravages the human body.

Coronavirus Drug for Cats Has Potential Use for COVID-19 Virus in Humans

Researchers at the University of Alberta say a protease in SARS-CoV-2 can be targeted with a drug that is also used to treat feline infectious peritonitis, a fatal infection in cats caused by a coronavirus. The drugs, dipeptide-based protein inhibitors, could be used to slow or stop replication of the COVID-19 virus in humans. During the 70th annual meeting of the American Crystallographic Association, Joanne Lemieux will outline how the drugs are strong candidates for the treatment of human coronavirus infections.

Staff at Berkeley Lab’s X-ray Facility Mobilize to Support COVID-19-Related Research

Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source X-ray facility has been recalled to action to support research related to COVID-19, the coronavirus disease that has already infected about 2 million people around the world.

Argonne’s researchers and facilities playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19

Argonne scientists are working around the clock to analyze the virus to find new treatments and cures, predict how it will propagate through the population, and make sure that our supply chains remain intact.