First experiments at Europe’s new X-ray laser reveal unknown structure of antibiotics killer

An international collaboration, consisting of over 120 researchers, has announced the results of the first scientific experiments at Europe's new X-ray free-electron laser, called the European XFEL. This first study reveals a previously unknown structure of an enzyme, responsible for antibiotics resistance. “The ground-breaking work of the first team to use the European XFEL has paved the way for all users of the facility who greatly benefit from these pioneering experiments,” emphasises European XFEL managing director Robert Feidenhans'l. “We are very pleased - these first results show that the facility is ready to deliver new scientific breakthroughs.” The scientists present their results, including the first new protein structure solved at the European XFEL, in the journal Nature Communications.

ELIMAIA-ELIMED installed at ELI Beamlines

The ELIMAIA ion acceleration user beamline has been recently installed at ELI Beamlines along with its key system, the ELIMED ion beam transport and dosimetry section. The mission of ELIMAIA (ELI Multidisciplinary Applications of laser-Ion Acceleration) is to provide stable, fully characterized and tunable beams of particles accelerated by multi-PW lasers and to offer them to the user community for multidisciplinary applications.

The key milestone of laser system L4 development was successfully accomplished

The laser system L4 has been developed by the american-european consortium of National Energetics (NE) and Ekspla (Lithuania) in Texas US since 2014. The combined NE and ELI Beamlines teams have been working on L4 development for almost four years. This close cooperation was productive and led to the current status – full operation of > 1kJ laser with both a broadband OPCPA frontend and a long-pulse frontend.

The first commissioning experiments at ELI Beamlines

The invited experts for methods development have been working at ELI Beamlines since late 2016. By now, there were made about 20 of such experiments mainly focusing on applications in ultrafast optical spectroscopy.

ELI Beamlines and its new project: Non-Destructive Laser-driven Heritage Testing

Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic / ELI Beamlines Research Center is launching a new project called Non-Destructive Methods of Heritage Testing , financed by the Prague Operational Program (Pól růstu ČR, the City of Prague). Researchers from ELI-Beamlines working within the Scientific Program on Ion Acceleration by Laser, and currently commissioning the ELIMAIA user beamline, will be partially supported within the project by the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Řež and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (INFN LNS) in Catania. INFN ranks among the best in methods for authentication, conservation and restoration of monuments, but with a conventional particle accelerator. The implementation of laser-driven protons will be worldwide unique for the combination of the planned analyses (PIXE and PAA).

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš at the ELI Beamlines Research Centre

On 20th of August 2018, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babiš visited the ELI Beamlines Research Center in Dolní Břežany. The goal of his visit was not only to see the research center and its new technologies, which belong to world-class high-tech equipment, but also to discuss the operation of the center and the sustainability and benefits of ELI Beamlines within the international organization and the scientific community.

The first shot of ELI laser

The unique L3-HAPLS laser system, developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for ELI Beamlines, was today on July 2, 2018, ceremonially launched. After evaluation by an international peer review group, it has been declared fully integrated and operational. The system is ready for integration with the experimental systems and first experiments.

LLNL-developed petawatt laser system fully integrated, operational at ELI Beamlines

After evaluation by an international peer review group, the L3-HAPLS advanced petawatt laser system has been declared fully integrated and operational at the ELI Beamlines Research Center in Dolní Břežany, Czech Republic. The group assessed the laser performance, determined that all performance parameters have been successfully met - capable of reaching the 1 petawatt, 10 hertz (Hz) design specification - and that the system is ready for integration with the experimental systems and first experiments.

Enhancement of proton therapy effectiveness experimentally demonstrated for the first time: Proton Boron Capture Therapy (PBCT)

Enhancement of proton therapy effectiveness experimentally demonstrated for the first time: Proton Boron Capture Therapy (PBCT)

The use of proton-boron nuclear fusion to enhance proton therapy effectiveness in the cancer cell killing rate has been demonstrated experimentally as a result of a scientific collaboration among researchers coming from Laboratori Nazionali del Sud (LNS-INFN) in Catania, ELI-Beamlines (ELI-IoP-ASCR) in Prague, Department of Physics of University of Naples Federico II (DoP-UoN), and Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) in Trento. The experimental research, carried out at LNS, is a result of two years of intensive experimental activity based on trials with various cell lines.
Image: The CATANA tumor treatment room at LNS-INFN, Catania, Italy (courtesy of G. Agnello)

Scientists decipher key principle behind reaction of metalloenzymes

cientists decipher key principle behind reaction of metalloenzymes

What enables electrons to be transferred swiftly, for example during photosynthesis? An interdisciplinary team of researchers has worked out the details of how important bioinorganic electron transfer systems operate. Using a combination of very different, time-resolved measurement methods, the scientists were able to show that so-called pre-distorted states can speed up photochemical reactions or make them possible in the first place. The group headed by Sonja Herres-Pawlis from the RWTH Aachen University (RWTH) Michael Rübhausen from the University of Hamburg and Wolfgang Zinth from Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University, is presenting its findings in the journal Nature Chemistry.The scientists had studied the pre-distorted, “entatic” state using a model system. An entatic state is the term used by chemists to refer to the configuration of a molecule in which the normal arrangement of the atoms is modified by external binding partners such that the energy threshold for the desired reaction is lowered, resulting in a higher speed of reaction. One example of this is the metalloprotein plastocyanin, which has a copper atom at its centre and is responsible for important steps in the transfer of electrons during photosynthesis. Depending on its oxidation state, the copper atom either prefers a planar configuration, in which all the surrounding atoms are arranged in the same plane (planar geometry), or a tetrahedral arrangement of the neighbouring ligands. However the binding partner in the protein forces the copper atom to adopt a sort of intermediate arrangement. This highly distorted tetrahedron allows a very rapid shift between the two oxidation states of the copper atom.