WRITER: Phil Williams, 706/542-8501, [email protected]
CONTACT: B. C. Wang, 706/542-1747, [email protected]
UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA, OTHER SOUTHEASTERN INSTITUTIONS SIGN AGREEMENT FOR MAJOR RESEARCH AT ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY
ATHENS, Ga. -- A consortium of Southeastern universities, coordinated by researchers from the University of Georgia, today signed a memorandum of understanding with the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago that could help revolutionize structural research in the Southeast. The new pact will allow access to one of the world's most powerful X-ray facilities, where scientists can study materials science, molecular environmental science and structural biology.
Built at a cost of more than $800 million, the Advanced Photon Source X-ray began producing super-intense X-ray beams three years ago and has already drawn some 20 collaborative access teams (CATs) from around the country, including such institutions as Harvard, Yale, MIT, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. The new team is the first from the Southeastern United States.
While the APS maintains the vast X-ray ring itself, collaborators must pay for "beamlines" -- access points through which the powerful X-rays can be guided and used for scientific research.
"Like a five-star hotel giving out some of its rooms permanently to those who can provide furniture, the Advanced Photon Source gives out some of its ports to those groups or institutions who can provide beamlines," said B. C. Wang, Ramsey-Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of X-Ray Crystallography at the University of Georgia.
Wang brought together representatives from a number of universities in the South, raising more than $10 million to purchase equipment for use at the APS. He now serves as director of the board of the collaborative access team from the South. Design and construction of the equipment for the first of two beamlines planned for use by partners from the Southeast will take about three years.
Wang, Joe Key, the University of Georgia's Vice President for Research, and biochemistry professor Lars Ljungdahl attended the signing today.
After an organizational meeting in May 1997 at the University of Georgia, a Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT) was created to seek access to the Advanced Photon Source. Members of the team now are the universities of Alabama (at Birmingham and Hunstville), Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri-Kansas City, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, as well as the National Institutes of Health. Total cost of a single beamline is around $7 million, and because more than that has already been raised, the SER-CAT has agreed to support two beamlines, which will cost somewhere between $13 million and $15 million.
Others involved in the SER-CAT include Florida State University, Emory University, Georgia Tech, Duke University, Clemson University, the Medical University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, Vanderbilt University and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
The Georgia Research Alliance, a consortium of industry, business and government, is also a major player in the SER-CAT. The University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Emory University each contributed $500,000 toward the construction of the beamlines at APS, and the Georgia Research Alliance matched that amount, with a $1.5 million contribution.
"Our relationship with Argonne National Laboratory represents an important step in enhancing the state's research enterprise," said Michael Cassidy, vice president of the Georgia Research Alliance. "This new resource will establish Georgia as the leader in the Southeast in support of biotechnology and provide our academic and industrial partners with access to the nation's most advanced X-ray facility. We are delighted to be part of this program." Cassidy also attended the signing.
Scientists have known for several decades that powerful X-rays can help decode the structures of molecules. The importance of such knowledge has been vast and has led to everything from basic information on the structure of DNA to the design of new medicines. Because of rapidly advancing technology, the number of structural biologists is growing dramatically, and their number in the South has tripled in the past five years.
Recognizing the need for a facility that no individual institution could build, the federal Department of Energy funded the construction of the Advanced Photon Source -- one of the most powerful X-ray facilities in the world -- at the Argonne National Laboratory.
"The new agreement will provide structural scientists in the SER-CAT with reliable, rapid and timely access to the best possible synchrotron beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source," said Wang, who is in Chicago today for the formal signing. "SER-CAT will continue to coordinate fund-raising and will manage this multi-user scientific enterprise."
The projects undertaken by the Southeast Regional CAT will range from the discovery of new molecular structures and drug design to protein engineering and materials science. One major advantage will be the ability of the APS to reveal structures of very small crystals which can't be revealed by in-house X-ray sources at most universities. Many of the SER-CAT investigators view the ability to use very small crystals as the major reason for building beamlines at the Illinois facility.
On the other hand, the facility also makes it easier to examine structures with very large cell dimensions, such as viruses, allowing research in complex biological systems.
"The SER-CAT beamlines will revolutionize structural research in the Southeast Region for years to come, promoting growth and encouraging the development of cutting-edge scientific research in the Southeast," said Wang.
Gerold Rosenbaum, a world renowned beamline designer, will head the construction project on site. John Unik, formerly with the Argonne National Laboratory, will serve as a consultant to the newly formed SER-CAT, according to Wang.
"The Department of Energy provides the 'shell' and each experimental group has an area for the research they want to do," said Unik. "While the facility was originally conceived as a materials research center, biological structures are now a very important area of research there, too."
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For more background on the Advanced Photon Source, visit their web site at http://www.aps.anl.gov.
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