Newswise — The Earth is a complex ecosystem, and our place in it is dependent on many different factors. From soil health to air quality to the behavior of plants and microorganisms, understanding our natural world and its other inhabitants is vital to our own survival. As the climate continues to change, research into the environment and its diverse forms of life will only become more important.
In October 2023, the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, will officially launch a new initiative to expand biological and environmental research at the world leading X-ray and analysis facility. The enterprise, dubbed eBERlight, recently received approval from DOE’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program. Its goal is to connect researchers conducting experiments within the BER mission with the world-leading X-ray science resources of the APS. By increasing access to multiple capabilities at the APS, the minds behind eBERlight hope to find new scientific approaches and engage new groups of multidisciplinary researchers towards investigating new insights about the world in which we live.
“This is an opportunity to build something new that, until now, hasn’t existed at APS,” said Karolina Michalska, a protein crystallographer at Argonne who is leading the eBERlight effort. “We’re broadening the access to accommodate more biological and environmental research, and since this program is so new, the scientists who will use the facility are helping us to develop it.”
The APS has been a leader in one area of biological research, called macromolecular crystallography, since the facility’s inception in the 1990s. Scientists have used this technique to learn more about infectious diseases and viruses to help lay the groundwork for vaccines and treatments. Now the APS is looking to expand its successes into other areas of life and environmental sciences.
One challenge with this expansion is that many scientists in biological and environmental fields are unaware of the capabilities at APS that can help them advance their research and aren’t familiar with the process for gaining access to the facility’s bright X-ray beams. Similarly, many of these scientists don’t know which of the APS’s many experiment stations — called beamlines — would be the best choice for their experiments, since each one is optimized for particular scientific techniques.
This is where eBERlight comes in, according to Michalska. She describes it as a virtual ecosystem geared toward connecting scientists with the right techniques at the right APS beamlines. Researchers will send in proposals to the eBERlight staff, who will assist in matching experimental designs with the right beamlines to carry out the proposed research. The varied capabilities of the APS, she said, means that eBERlight can have an impact across the spectrum of biological and environmental science.
“We are learning what BER researchers are studying and how we can complement that research,” she said. “Some of these researchers have never used a synchrotron such as the APS. They are learning what tools they can access, and what science can be addressed at the APS that you can’t do elsewhere.”
“This is an opportunity to build something new that, until now, hasn’t existed at the APS. We’re broadening the access to accommodate biological and environmental research, and since this is so new, the scientists who will use the facility are helping us to develop the program.” — Karolina Michalska, Argonne National Laboratory
As for the specific science eBERlight will facilitate, Michalska said it will include everything from soil studies to plant growth to cloud formation to biofuels. Stefan Vogt, associate director of the X-ray Science division at the APS, adds water cycles to the list, noting that this information is vital to better understand changing climate conditions.
“We have always worked on questions related to climate science, and need to continue to work on them,” Vogt said. “We need to understand how to deal with the profound impact of a changing climate on the environment.”
While eBERlight officially launches in October, the APS will still be in the middle of a year-long pause in operations, part of a comprehensive upgrade to the facility. During that time the team will be working on research and development at the beamlines for biological and environmental samples, developing its database and conducting outreach about the program.
When the APS begins operating again in 2024, its capabilities will be greatly expanded. The eBERlight team will have standing agreements with 13 APS beamlines, representing a broad range of techniques. Scientists working through eBERlight will also be able to use Argonne resources such as the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility and home of the lab’s supercomputers, and the Advanced Protein Characterization Facility, where proteins are crystallized and prepared for analysis.
As the program grows, it will leverage ties to other DOE Office of Science user facilities, such as the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
“It takes a village to raise kids, but it takes a larger village to solve one science problem,” said Zou Finfrock, an Argonne physicist who is part of the eBERlight team. “I like eBERlight’s multifaceted nature as it strives to establish an integrated platform that fosters scientific exploration across biological, earth and environmental systems. It sounds simple, but the scope, and potential impact, is huge.”
The idea for eBERlight has been in the works for years, said Ken Kemner, a senior physicist and group leader at Argonne. Kemner has been with the lab for the entire 27-year life of the APS, and for much of that time he’s been working to connect environmental researchers with the facility’s resources. Now, he said, eBERlight will continue this work on a much larger scale. He’s excited to see what new breakthroughs will be made through research into greenhouse gases, wetland ecosystems and the interface of plants and microorganisms with soils and sediments.
The key to eBERlight’s success, Kemner said, will be education of both the synchrotron scientists and the biological and environmental scientists.
“You have to educate X-ray scientists to better understand environmental science questions and adapt the techniques to better serve environmental research questions,” he said. “You also have to educate environmental scientists on how great light source facilities are for addressing these questions. It’s about lowering that barrier bordering them.”
The new program means democratizing access to the APS and its capabilities, said Laurent Chapon, associate laboratory director for Photon Sciences and director of the APS.
“This program sends a vital message, that the APS is a key resource to the nation, able to develop programs to help tackle pressing issues, in this case in environmental and biological challenges,” Chapon said. “eBERlight will offer an end-to-end solution for scientists seeking to tackle natural science with real-world implications.”
Michalska agrees and is eager to get started.
“I hope that whatever grand challenges scientists take on, the APS can help them,” she said. “These challenges affect every one of us.”
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