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MediaNews Releases2010
Science HighlightsSetting Sights on New Antibiotics  Structural diagram of the UGM enzyme, derived from data collected at the CLS. This structural information is key to developing inhibitor compounds for new types of antibiotics. Image courtesy of David Sanders, University of Saskatchewan. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is caused when sulphur in mine tailings reacts with water and oxygen in the environment to produce sulphuric acid. It is a major environmental issue, with AMD a concern for lake acidification and water quality. AMD is also implicated as a climate change culprit – the sulphuric acid dissolves carbonate minerals in the underlying rock, liberating carbon dioxide in a process known as acid rock weathering. Using two beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and a third at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), researchers from McMaster University have found that two species of bacteria isolated from a mine tailings pond in northern Ontario actually work together to limit the amount of acid produced by sharing the sulphur in the tailings as an energy source. Reference: Norlund et al. 2009. Microbial Architecture of Environmental Sulfur Processes: A Novel Syntrophic Sulfur-Metabolizing Consortia. Environmental Science and Technology 43, pp. 8781-8786.
Sulphur-eating bacteria limit acid run-off and CO2 
Composite map of different types of sulphur in a microbial pod (a) obtained at the ALS, along with a comparison of spectra from the various forms of sulphur compared to reference standards from the CLS (b). K. Norlund, McMaster University. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is caused when sulphur in mine tailings reacts with water and oxygen in the environment to produce sulphuric acid. It is a major environmental issue, with AMD a concern for lake acidification and water quality. AMD is also implicated as a climate change culprit – the sulphuric acid dissolves carbonate minerals in the underlying rock, liberating carbon dioxide in a process known as acid rock weathering. Using two beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) and a third at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), researchers from McMaster University have found that two species of bacteria isolated from a mine tailings pond in northern Ontario actually work together to limit the amount of acid produced by sharing the sulphur in the tailings as an energy source. Reference: Norlund et al. 2009. Microbial Architecture of Environmental Sulfur Processes: A Novel Syntrophic Sulfur-Metabolizing Consortia. Environmental Science and Technology 43, pp. 8781-8786.
Shedding Infrared Light on Esophageal Disease  Visible light micrograph of Barrett’s Esophagus tissue (A) and a synchrotron infrared image (B) from the CLS. The light blue area corresponds to an area rich in glycoproteins, a biomarker for Barrett’s Esophagus. Image Barrett’s Esophagus (BE) occurs when the cells that normally line the esophagus – the tube that connects our throat to our stomach – are replaced by cells that resemble those that line the intestine, leading in some cases to esophageal cancer. Luca Quaroni, a researcher at the Canadian Light Source and Dr. Alan Casson, Head of the Department of Surgery in the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine used the CLS’s infrared microscope to identify Barrett’s esophagus cells from their unique chemical fingerprint. The finding was published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal, The Analyst. Reference: L. Quaroni and A. Casson, 2009. Characterization of Barrett esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma by Fourier-transform infrared microscopy. The Analyst. 134, pp. 1240-1246. DOI: 10.1039/b820371d.
Watching a Catalyst at Work  Artist’s interpretation of a hydrocarbon chain (centre) and smaller reactant molecules on the false-coloured surface of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst particle. The different colours denote the distribution of different chemical forms of iron. From de Smit, et al. 2009, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48: 3632-3636. Catalysts are used to speed up chemical reactions in many industrial processes, including storing energy in fuel cells and batteries, and processing and refining oil and gas. Using the CLS, researchers from Utrecht and Delft universities in the Netherlands have developed a powerful new technique to study how single catalyst particle works at the molecular level. The first catalyst they studied plays a key role in the synthesis of fuel from coal or biomass, instead of crude oil. The technique can also be used to study structural changes in hydrogen storage materials or examine nanoparticles inside cells. Reference: de Smit et al, 2009. Nanoscale chemical imaging of the reduction behavior of a single catalyst particle. Angewandte Chemie (International Edition) 48, 20, pp. 3632-3636. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200806003. Getting TB off Steroids  Molecular model of the KshA enzyme from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a new target for treating TB. For over 40 years, tuberculosis has been treated using a cocktail of antibiotics that must be taken for six months to a year. The long course of treatment is necessary to ensure that all of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacteria that causes TB, is killed off. Abandoned courses of treatment not only lead to relapses and further risk of spreading the disease, but also to the evolution of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) strains, which now make up 20 and 2 percent of all TB cases, respectively. A discovery recently reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry by researchers from the Canadian Light Source and the University of British Columbia sheds light both on the source of the TB bug’s resilience and a new way to treat the infection. Reference: Capyk et al. 2009, Journal of Biological Chemistry 284, pp. 9937-9946.
Last modified: 2010-03-10 11:03:34 |
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