Credit: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Experiments at SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source show the promise of using X-ray free-electron lasers to better understand the structure and function of amyloid fibrils, tiny protein strands that play a role in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In this illustration, X-ray light penetrates a sample of amyloid fibrils placed on the honeycomb-like carbon lattice of graphene, a new method that produces cleaner data because the thin graphene virtually disappears from view.