ALBERT

Description: X-ray lasers offer new capabilities in understanding the structure of biological systems, complex materials and matter under extreme conditions. Very short and extremely bright, coherent X-ray pulses can be used to outrun key damage processes and obtain a single diffraction pattern from a large macromolecule, a virus or a cell before the sample explodes and turns into plasma. The continuous diffraction pattern of non-crystalline objects permits oversampling and direct phase retrieval. Here we show that high-quality diffraction data can be obtained with a single X-ray pulse from a non-crystalline biological sample, a single mimivirus particle, which was injected into the pulsed beam of a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. Calculations indicate that the energy deposited into the virus by the pulse heated the particle to over 100,000 K after the pulse had left the sample. The reconstructed exit wavefront (image) yielded 32-nm full-period resolution in a single exposure and showed no measurable damage. The reconstruction indicates inhomogeneous arrangement of dense material inside the virion. We expect that significantly higher resolutions will be achieved in such experiments with shorter and brighter photon pulses focused to a smaller area. The resolution in such experiments can be further extended for samples available in multiple identical copies.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038304/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4038304/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Seibert, M Marvin -- Ekeberg, Tomas -- Maia, Filipe R N C -- Svenda, Martin -- Andreasson, Jakob -- Jonsson, Olof -- Odic, Dusko -- Iwan, Bianca -- Rocker, Andrea -- Westphal, Daniel -- Hantke, Max -- DePonte, Daniel P -- Barty, Anton -- Schulz, Joachim -- Gumprecht, Lars -- Coppola, Nicola -- Aquila, Andrew -- Liang, Mengning -- White, Thomas A -- Martin, Andrew -- Caleman, Carl -- Stern, Stephan -- Abergel, Chantal -- Seltzer, Virginie -- Claverie, Jean-Michel -- Bostedt, Christoph -- Bozek, John D -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Miahnahri, A Alan -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Krzywinski, Jacek -- Williams, Garth -- Hodgson, Keith O -- Bogan, Michael J -- Hampton, Christina Y -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Starodub, Dmitri -- Andersson, Inger -- Bajt, Sasa -- Barthelmess, Miriam -- Spence, John C H -- Fromme, Petra -- Weierstall, Uwe -- Kirian, Richard -- Hunter, Mark -- Doak, R Bruce -- Marchesini, Stefano -- Hau-Riege, Stefan P -- Frank, Matthias -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Lomb, Lukas -- Epp, Sascha W -- Hartmann, Robert -- Rolles, Daniel -- Rudenko, Artem -- Schmidt, Carlo -- Foucar, Lutz -- Kimmel, Nils -- Holl, Peter -- Rudek, Benedikt -- Erk, Benjamin -- Homke, Andre -- Reich, Christian -- Pietschner, Daniel -- Weidenspointner, Georg -- Struder, Lothar -- Hauser, Gunter -- Gorke, Hubert -- Ullrich, Joachim -- Schlichting, Ilme -- Herrmann, Sven -- Schaller, Gerhard -- Schopper, Florian -- Soltau, Heike -- Kuhnel, Kai-Uwe -- Andritschke, Robert -- Schroter, Claus-Dieter -- Krasniqi, Faton -- Bott, Mario -- Schorb, Sebastian -- Rupp, Daniela -- Adolph, Marcus -- Gorkhover, Tais -- Hirsemann, Helmut -- Potdevin, Guillaume -- Graafsma, Heinz -- Nilsson, Bjorn -- Chapman, Henry N -- Hajdu, Janos -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 Feb 3;470(7332):78-81. doi: 10.1038/nature09748.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, Husargatan 3, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293374" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: X-ray crystallography provides the vast majority of macromolecular structures, but the success of the method relies on growing crystals of sufficient size. In conventional measurements, the necessary increase in X-ray dose to record data from crystals that are too small leads to extensive damage before a diffraction signal can be recorded. It is particularly challenging to obtain large, well-diffracting crystals of membrane proteins, for which fewer than 300 unique structures have been determined despite their importance in all living cells. Here we present a method for structure determination where single-crystal X-ray diffraction 'snapshots' are collected from a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals using femtosecond pulses from a hard-X-ray free-electron laser, the Linac Coherent Light Source. We prove this concept with nanocrystals of photosystem I, one of the largest membrane protein complexes. More than 3,000,000 diffraction patterns were collected in this study, and a three-dimensional data set was assembled from individual photosystem I nanocrystals ( approximately 200 nm to 2 mum in size). We mitigate the problem of radiation damage in crystallography by using pulses briefer than the timescale of most damage processes. This offers a new approach to structure determination of macromolecules that do not yield crystals of sufficient size for studies using conventional radiation sources or are particularly sensitive to radiation damage.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429598/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3429598/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Chapman, Henry N -- Fromme, Petra -- Barty, Anton -- White, Thomas A -- Kirian, Richard A -- Aquila, Andrew -- Hunter, Mark S -- Schulz, Joachim -- DePonte, Daniel P -- Weierstall, Uwe -- Doak, R Bruce -- Maia, Filipe R N C -- Martin, Andrew V -- Schlichting, Ilme -- Lomb, Lukas -- Coppola, Nicola -- Shoeman, Robert L -- Epp, Sascha W -- Hartmann, Robert -- Rolles, Daniel -- Rudenko, Artem -- Foucar, Lutz -- Kimmel, Nils -- Weidenspointner, Georg -- Holl, Peter -- Liang, Mengning -- Barthelmess, Miriam -- Caleman, Carl -- Boutet, Sebastien -- Bogan, Michael J -- Krzywinski, Jacek -- Bostedt, Christoph -- Bajt, Sasa -- Gumprecht, Lars -- Rudek, Benedikt -- Erk, Benjamin -- Schmidt, Carlo -- Homke, Andre -- Reich, Christian -- Pietschner, Daniel -- Struder, Lothar -- Hauser, Gunter -- Gorke, Hubert -- Ullrich, Joachim -- Herrmann, Sven -- Schaller, Gerhard -- Schopper, Florian -- Soltau, Heike -- Kuhnel, Kai-Uwe -- Messerschmidt, Marc -- Bozek, John D -- Hau-Riege, Stefan P -- Frank, Matthias -- Hampton, Christina Y -- Sierra, Raymond G -- Starodub, Dmitri -- Williams, Garth J -- Hajdu, Janos -- Timneanu, Nicusor -- Seibert, M Marvin -- Andreasson, Jakob -- Rocker, Andrea -- Jonsson, Olof -- Svenda, Martin -- Stern, Stephan -- Nass, Karol -- Andritschke, Robert -- Schroter, Claus-Dieter -- Krasniqi, Faton -- Bott, Mario -- Schmidt, Kevin E -- Wang, Xiaoyu -- Grotjohann, Ingo -- Holton, James M -- Barends, Thomas R M -- Neutze, Richard -- Marchesini, Stefano -- Fromme, Raimund -- Schorb, Sebastian -- Rupp, Daniela -- Adolph, Marcus -- Gorkhover, Tais -- Andersson, Inger -- Hirsemann, Helmut -- Potdevin, Guillaume -- Graafsma, Heinz -- Nilsson, Bjorn -- Spence, John C H -- 1R01GM095583-01/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- 1U54GM094625-01/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 GM095583/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U54 GM094599/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- U54 GM094625/GM/NIGMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2011 Feb 3;470(7332):73-7. doi: 10.1038/nature09750.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Center for Free-Electron Laser Science, DESY, Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany. henry.chapman@desy.de〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21293373" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: In 1991 we detected extended 1.1 mm emission around Fomalhaut (alpha PsA) at distances in order of magnitude beyond previous detections. This emission is plausibly related to the presence of an extended comet cloud, like our Oort Cloud, and may therefore represent indirect evidence for the formation of a planetary system at Fomalhaut. We propose now to extend this work to create a map of the angular and spatial extent of this emission. Fomalhaut is the only known main-sequence, submm-resolved IR excess source besides beta Pic.

Description: This is the second report for NAGW-3023, Studies of Extra-Solar Oort Clouds and the Kuiper Disk. We are conducting research designed to enhance our understanding of the evolution and detectability of comet clouds and disks. This area holds promise for also improving our understanding of outer solar system formation, the bombardment history of the planets, the transport of volatiles and organics from the outer solar system to the inner planets, and the ultimate fate of comet clouds around the Sun and other stars. According to 'standard' theory, both the Kuiper Disk and Oort Cloud are (at least in part) natural products of the planetary accumulation stage of solar system formation. One expects such assemblages to be a common attribute of other solar systems. Therefore, searches for comet disks and clouds orbiting other stars offer a new method for infering the presence of planetary systems. Our three-year effort consists of two major efforts: (1) observational work to predict and search for the signatures of Oort Clouds and comet disks around other stars; and (2) modelling studies of the formation and evolution of the Kuiper Disk (KD) and similar assemblages that may reside around other stars, including Beta Pic. These efforts are referred to as Task 1 and 2, respectively.