Advanced Detector for Biological Synchrotron Fiber Diffraction

Illinois Institute Of Technology, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is for the purchase of a high sensitivity, high spatial resolution, high dynamic range detector for static and time resolved X-ray fiber diffraction experiments at the BioCAT beamline 18ID at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, The BioCAT facility is a Biotechnology Research Resource funded by a P41 grant from NCRR. It undertakes, the core, collaborative, service, training and dissemination activities required by such resources. The collaborative and service research programs include studies of skeletal and cardiac muscle, connective tissues, and amyloids with relevance to understanding the molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction and its regulation. the structure and function of collagenous tissue and protein mis-folding in disease. These mechanisms will be expected to be directly relevant to heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, and amyloidosis in neurodegenerative and systemic diseases. To effectively exploit the excellent properties of the X-ray beams delivered by the BioCAT beamline 18ID required a detector with properties carefully matched to that of the beam. The proposed instrument, Aveix model PCCD-9284 detector, was designed with exactly these kinds of experiments in mind and will ideally fill this role. HEALTH RELEVANCE: The BioCAT facility at the Advanced Photon Source uses X-ray technologies to study the properties of biological tissues such as heart muscle, cartilage, tendons and ligaments as well as pathological structures involving protein mis-folding. The long term goal of these studies is to understand the mechanisms responsible for heart disease, cancer, osteoarthritis, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease so that more effective therapies can be devised.