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Tuesday, 27 March 2018

Discover Magazine has done a feature on the National Science Foundation's Science and Technology Center Program.  Below is an excerpt regarding BioXFEL.  Read full article here.

 

Researchers wanting to better understand how viruses inject their genetic information into hosts are often thwarted by their inability to see inside and visualize the dynamism of virus molecules. A researcher at the Biology with X-ray Free Electron Lasers (BioXFEL) developed a new imaging methodto better visualize biomolecules like the one seen here, whose inner structure lights up in red, orange and yellow hues. Using an algorithm to reconstruct a 3-D version of a molecule in a solution from a 1-D image produced by a pulsed, hard X-ray laser, the new technique will create a better understanding of molecular structures, possibly boosting virus research and transforming the field of drug discovery. 

Established in 2013, BioXFEL, an NSF Science and Technology Center located at the University at Buffalo, works to answer fundamental questions about biology at the molecular level. As a result, center research is spurring much needed innovation in disease development and treatments.