Genomic Science Program
U.S. Department of Energy | Office of Science | Biological and Environmental Research Program

Advanced Photon Source Capabilities for Environmental and Biological Science

Authors:

Zou Finfrock1, Alex Lavens1, Krzysztof Lazarski1, Changsoo Chang1, Jerzy Osipiuk1, Gyorgy Babnigg1, Youngchang Kim1, Kenneth Kemner1, Andrzej Joachimiak1,2, and Karolina Michalska1*(kmichalska@anl.gov)

Institutions:

1Argonne National Laboratory; and 2University of Chicago

Goals

  1. Development of an integrated research platform and comprehensive user support at the Advances Photon Source for BER-relevant research
  2. Building a diverse user base through outreach and training activities
  3. Integration with BER user facilities for streamlined access and enabling multimodal experiments

Abstract

Light sources provide a wide range of x-ray-based tools for research pertinent to the Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research (BER) mission. Over the past 25 years, Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory has been at the forefront of research in biological, geological, geochemical and environmental sciences. The ongoing generational upgrade of the APS facility will offer transformative opportunities for BER community to address scientific challenges. After completion in 2024, the so-called APS-U will become the nation’s brightest high-energy, storage-ring based x-ray source, delivering x-rays that will be 500 times brighter than they are today. The APS-U will allow researchers to study samples at higher resolutions and unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. Combination of macromolecular crystallography, x-ray fluorescence microscopy, tomography, absorption spectroscopy, and small/wide angle x-ray scattering will enable visualization of biological and environmental samples at scales ranging from Angstroms to centimeters and timescales from picoseconds to seconds. With the x-ray source’s high brightness, investigation of dynamics of biological processes will be achievable. In addition to the extraordinary spatial resolution across a large field of view, high-throughput and multimodal data collection will provide unprecedented statistical analysis of complex biological and environmental systems, allowing to address their enormous heterogeneity. To maximize APS-U impact on BER science, the eBERlight program is being developed to specifically support the user community pursuing research within the BER mission. eBERlight is expected to allocate beamtime, facilitate and coordinate access, and support its users along their entire interaction with the APS, helping with the project and proposal development, design of the experimental workflow, sample preparation, data collection and analysis. To ensure an optimal infrastructure for one-stop portal, the program will also leverage additional Argonne resources for sample preparation and data analysis.

Funding Information

Argonne National Laboratory is operated by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.