Forschung zu Covid-19

In biology, structure and function are closely interwoven. A case in point is oxygen transport in the lungs, which relies on ferrous heme proteins adopting dome-like shapes.

The first endstation at the SwissFEL Athos soft X-ray branch is rapidly developing and on track for first experiments in 2021.

An international team of scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute and members of the LeadXpro and Heptares pharmaceutical companies led by Karol Nass (Alvra group, SwissFEL) demonstrated a significant advancement in de novo protein structure determination at X-ray free-electron lasers. Their article, published recently in IUCrJ (DOI: 10.1107/S2052252520011379), describes structure determination of a membrane protein and an important drug target (A_2A adenosine receptor) by native single-wavelength anomalous diffraction (native-SAD) at SwissFEL with up to ten fold reduction in the required number of indexed images.

After the joint position paper published as a pre-release in July, in which the Analytical Research Infrastructures of Europe (ARIE) presented their plan to tackle HE Missions,  the ARIE enhanced its cross-border, multidisciplinary collaboration to offer Europe a strong and valid weapon against the present COVID-19 challenge and other potential viral and microbial threats.

Excitation of coherent phonons using light is an emerging approach for investigating condensed matter physics. It has the potential not only to reveal the dynamics of collective lattice vibrations but also to tailor them for the ultrafast control over the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties in solids. The optical phonons, in most solids, lie primarily in the spectral region between 1 and 10 THz. Unlike conventional laser sources, coherent radiation at these frequencies allows us to study time-resolved lattice displacements with only minor deposition of heat or generation of hot electrons. However, the available high-field terahertz sources, with their quasi-single cycle temporal shape and broadband spectrum, cannot be used to excite the individual phonon modes. By contrast, the challenge of understanding the transient dynamics of low-energy excitations calls for novel sources of narrow-band terahertz radiation at high intensities that can be tuned to the individual phonon resonances. Moreover, with strong enough fields tuned precisely to a phonon resonance, non-linearities in the material can be targeted and potentially exploited.

The results from the very first user experiment at SwissFEL have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The measurements probed the electron transport properties of the cytochrome c protein, which is found in cellular mitochondria. The measurements show that when the Fe atom at the centre of the protein undergoes electronic excitation, for example when it gains or loses and electron, the  active centre of the protein undergoes a doming structural rearrangement. This result raises interesting questions about how this structural change is involved in the electron transfer properties of cytochrome c.

Magnesium rich calcites are important functional biominerals. For example, they can be found in protective shells or eye lenses. Natural organism provide a surprisingly high degree of control on the amount of magnesium incorporation into calcites by yet not well understood mechanisms. Understanding such control mechanism is important when designing bio inspired functional materials. Here we systematically explore the impact of thermodynamic parameters on the degree of magnesium incorporation into calcite. In particular, we identify the thermodynamic conditions, where very high magnesium rich calcites (50% Mg/50% Ca) forms under ambient conditions of temperature and pressure. This is an important finding for geochemistry: Very high magnesium rich calcite is believed to be the precursor for dolomite. Despite its frequent occurrence in nature, its unknown formation pathway remains one of the big mysteries in geochemistry.

Calcium carbonates are key materials to biomineralization, they are frequently used in industrial applications and also for carbon capture technologies. Finally, they serve as an important model system to test novel nucleation theories.  Calcium carbonate crystalizes in a multi-step process, where amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is the most important precursor in the crystallization process. Existing synthesis protocols generate ACC of different stability and purity.  To improve our mechanistic understanding of carbonate crystallization, reactivity and polymorph formation, the reproducible synthesis of clean and stable ACC is an important, and yet unresolved step. Here we use the fast reaction of CO2 with calcium hydroxide in airborne aerosols to reproducibly create pure and stable ACC, which may serve as a well-defined starting material for further chemical processing.

Magnesium rich calcites are important functional biominerals. For example, they can be found in protective shells or eye lenses. Natural organism provide a surprisingly high degree of control on the amount of magnesium incorporation into calcites by yet not well understood mechanisms. Understanding such control mechanism is important when designing bio inspired functional materials. Here we systematically explore the impact of thermodynamic parameters on the degree of magnesium incorporation into calcite. In particular, we identify the thermodynamic conditions, where very high magnesium rich calcites (50% Mg/50% Ca) forms under ambient conditions of temperature and pressure. This is an important finding for geochemistry: Very high magnesium rich calcite is believed to be the precursor for dolomite. Despite its frequent occurrence in nature, its unknown formation pathway remains one of the big mysteries in geochemistry.

Calcium carbonates are key materials to biomineralization, they are frequently used in industrial applications and also for carbon capture technologies. Finally, they serve as an important model system to test novel nucleation theories.  Calcium carbonate crystalizes in a multi-step process, where amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is the most important precursor in the crystallization process. Existing synthesis protocols generate ACC of different stability and purity.  To improve our mechanistic understanding of carbonate crystallization, reactivity and polymorph formation, the reproducible synthesis of clean and stable ACC is an important, and yet unresolved step. Here we use the fast reaction of CO2 with calcium hydroxide in airborne aerosols to reproducibly create pure and stable ACC, which may serve as a well-defined starting material for further chemical processing.