Media
News Releases
2012
- Ducks Unlimited Canada and Canadian Light Source partnership to shed light on wetlands May 15, 2012
- Canadian Governor General Observes New Web-Based Research Link Between Brazilian and Canadian Synchrotrons April 28, 2012
- Canadian Isotope Project Enters Final Stretch February 15, 2012
2011
- Cobalt-60 at 60: Cancer research at the Canadian Light Source December 5, 2011
- Canadian Light Source Making Positive Economic, Scientific Impacts for Canada November 22, 2011
- Canadian Light Source Spots Speed Bumps in Graphene's Electron Highway June 28, 2011
- Oil Sands, Health and Energy Highlighted at Canadian Light Source - Annual Meeting June 20, 2011
- British, Canadian synchrotrons sign agreement May 31, 2011
- Governments of Canada, Saskatchewan announce support for Brockhouse beamlines May 25, 2011
- Science in Synch: Environmental stories in honour of Earth Day April 20, 2011
- Science in Synch: Health Stories from the CLS February 15, 2011
- CLS-led team aims to produce medical isotopes January 24, 2011
Science Highlights
Life Science: Tales told by old bones
Microscopic images of a bone fragment. A conventional histological image (A) highlights regions of interest with corresponding element scans from the CLS of calcium in yellow (B.), lead in red (C.) and strontium in blue (D.). Source: Swanston et al., 2012
The old saying "reading the bones" is being given a new twist for a group of people who lived on the island of Antigua over 200 years ago using the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron. Treena Swanston, a CIHR-THRUST Fellow and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) and Tamara Varney, an archaeologist at Lakehead Universityin Thunder Bay are working with staff scientists at the CLS, Swanston's supervisor U of S Professor David Coope, and Antigua's national park service to shed light on life on the Caribbean island using the presence of trace amounts of lead and strontium as clues. The team is using the CLS to hunt for the presence of these elements in tiny shards of bones from sailors and others interred in a Royal Navy cemetery in the late 1700s to early 1800s The work is published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Health: Illuminating link between sodium, calcium and heart beat
Molecular model showing the interaction between the sodium channel 'plug' that helps regulate heart rate and the calmodulin protein that regulates it. Mutations in how this interaction works can be seen in ECG traces (left: Brugada syndrome arrhythmia; right: normal). Courtesy of Maen Sarhan, UBC
That flutter in your heart may have more to do with the movement of sodium ions than the glance of a certain someone across a crowded room. Using the Canadian Light Source synchrotron, researchers from the University of British Columbia have revealed, for the first time, one of the molecular mechanisms that regulates the beating of heart cells by controlling the movement of sodium in out of the cells — and what calcium has to do with it.
Reference: M.F. Sarhan, et al. 2012. Crystallographic basis for calcium regulation of sodium channels. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1114748109
Health: Illuminating a parasite invasion
Mosquitoes carry and transmit the apicomplexan parasite Plasmodium, causing malaria in humans. Apicomplexan parasites use a complex made of the AMA1 and RON2 proteins (inset) to invade host cells undetected. Source: Tonkin et al., 2011
The human body is a perfect home for many parasites that seek out the nutrient-rich shelter of a host, with the invader playing a game of hide and seek with the host's immune system until they can find the cells that are just right for the parasite to occupy, eventually causing sickness. Some of the nastiest parasites with respect to human health are known as apicomplexans. Of these, the most notorious are the malaria-causing Plasmodium and Toxoplasma gondii, which is responsible for toxoplasmosis. University of Victoria professor Martin Boulanger has been using the Canadian Light Source to unlock the detailed mechanisms of how Toxoplasma parasites gain access to the hospitable environment within a host's cells. The findings of their collaborative work with the Lebrun lab in France and published in Science, could lead to new treatments for toxoplasmosis, malaria and numerous other diseases caused by apicomplexans.
Health: Shedding light on breast cancer's family roots
It is estimated that over 23,000 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in Canada in 2011. A minority, but growing, number of cases will be classified as early onset breast cancer - an aggressive form of the disease that strikes women in their late twenties or early thirties. University of Alberta researcher Mark Glover and his research group are using the Canadian Light Source to unravel how changes in a gene called BRCA1 lead to breast cancer. The research could lead to better genetic tests to diagnose the condition and even treat the disease and other forms of cancer.
Reference: N. Coquelle, R. Green and J.N.M. Glover. Impact of BRCA1 BRCT Domain Missense Substitutions on Phosphopeptide Recognition. Biochemistry, 2011, 50. DOI: 10.1021/bi2003795
Materials: Spotting graphene's speed bumps
X-ray microscopic image of graphene taken at the CLS. The red regions depict folds in graphene, whereas the green regions are relatively flat domains. The "hills and valleys" can act as speed bumps preventing the flow of charge through graphene. An all green topography would be preferred for high-performance electronics.
No two-dimensional material has piqued as much scientific interest as graphene, the subject of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics. Hailed as a miracle material, graphene is a molecular sheet composed of a single layer of carbon atoms. It is noted for its excellent electrical and thermal conductivity and its seemingly endless applications from ultrafast electronics to flexible solar panels. Subtle imperfections, however, can drastically mute graphene's prized properties. Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee and his research team at the University at Buffalo are using the Canadian Light Source to hone in on graphene's topography, producing for the first time images of the folds and ripples in the electron cloud that surround the nanomaterial and affect its conductivity.
Reference: Schultz, B.J. et al., Imaging local electronic corrugations and doped regions in graphene. 2011. Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1376
Last modified: 2012-05-15 08:05:03