News

MacCHESS crossed a new threshold in June 2017 with international data collection. Normand Cyr collected data at CHESS beamline F1 remotely from the D'Avanzo lab at the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.

A great challenge at many x-ray beamlines is to direct x-rays into in a very small, very clean footprint while maintaining high photon flux.

A previously reported method involving standard recombinant DNA techniques and some novel design principles enabled a team of Cornell chemical engineers to make large quantities of functional integral membrane proteins simply and inexpensively – all without the use of harsh chemicals or detergents, which are typically used today.

We have now completed our 7th BioSAXS Essentials training course! BioSAXS (Biological Small Angle X-ray Solution Scattering) is a highly popular technique for understanding the structure and behavior of biomolecules in solution, without the need for freezing or crystallization.

Eddy Arnold of Rutgers University has been studying the HIV virus for a long time. A frequent user of CHESS, Arnold has been using the technique of X-ray crystallography to investigate the structure of HIV proteins and learn more about inhibitors of those proteins which might lead to drugs to fight AIDS. His efforts have been reported here several times (1, 2).

The Macromolecular Diffraction Facility at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (MacCHESS) held its sixth highly successfully BioSAXS Essentials workshop from May 13th to 16th, 2016.

Living cells are constantly producing proteins (polypeptides) by translating genetic sequences (messenger RNA) using the large molecular complex called the ribosome.

Chris Fromme, Cornell Molecular Biology & Genetics, has been awarded a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship for his work in structural biology.