News

Why Engineering? A work experience view Jul 6, 2018

Work experience students Kiishi and Hannah give their take on engineering and outreach at Diamond.

Diamond celebrates publication of its 7000th paper Jul 3, 2018

Supporting World Cancer Day 2018 Jun 29, 2018

Lignin is a tough polymer found in plant cell walls, and is the largest reservoir of renewable, aromatic carbon found in nature.

Glaciers transport desert dust to polar plankton Jun 25, 2018

Enhancing enzyme activity in ionic solvents Jun 25, 2018

A combination of enzyme modification and reaction engineering offers unprecedented improvements in bioprocessing efficiency

Probing the complex dielectric properties of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) Jun 22, 2018

Probing tumour interiors Jun 19, 2018

A novel anticancer agent with 49 times greater potency

The power of radio! Jun 15, 2018

A surprising twist on skyrmions Jun 12, 2018

Magnetic tomography to reconstruct a tornado-like 3D magnetic skyrmion structure

New forensic DNA profiling technique on the horizon Jun 8, 2018

Flexible helper of protein folding Jun 4, 2018

Solving the structure of an HSP90 co-chaperone with cryo-EM

Red light photosynthesis Jun 1, 2018

The structure of a photosynthetic protein complex that absorbs infrared light in aquatic bacteria has been determined for the first time, using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) at eBIC. The work outlined in the journal Nature, showed every component of the photosynthetic complex to an impressive 2.9 Å resolution.

How malaria parasites break out of red blood cells during the infection cycle Jun 1, 2018

Malaria is a highly infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It is caused by a group of parasitic single-celled microorganisms, which are carried by mosquitoes. When malaria parasites enter a human via a mosquito bite, they rapidly multiply in red blood cells within a protective casing known as the parasitophorous vacuole.

Phosphorylation Enhances Cytochrome c Dynamics to Modulate its Function Jun 1, 2018

Some diseases, including cancer and ischemia (an inadequate blood supply to an organ or part of the body), involve reversible phosphorylation at a given site on the cytochrome c protein. Cytochrome c is essential for human metabolism and contains a heme iron, which allows it to function as an electron carrier. To understand the molecular basis underlying the effects of phosphorylation, an international team of researchers has used several methods to analyse the structure, dynamics and ...

Atomically Dispersed Gold Species Can Act as Catalysts Jun 1, 2018

Current production process for vinyl chloride, the monomer used in PVC and everything from piping and tubing to gels and lubricants, relies on a mercury-based catalyst. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances on the planet, and the UN recently ratified the Minamata Convention, meaning that a more environmentally-friendly alternative is required.

Nanocrystallites on micro-catalysts brought into focus Jun 1, 2018

The Fischer-Tropsch process is used to convert hydrogen and carbon monoxide to hydrocarbons. It relies on the use of catalysts, which make the process more efficient and can control which products are produced, from long hydrocarbon chains to heavy waxes.

Unravelling the mechanisms of immune escape by acute myeloid leukaemia Jun 1, 2018

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a type of blood cancer that originates from white blood cells in the bone marrow. It is often fatal and is considered one of the most common cancers of children and the elderly. The high mortality rate associated with this cancer can partly be ascribed to ineffective current treatments, which consist of aggressive chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation. There is a great need to find alternative treatments for AML patients to improve their outcomes. By ...

Shocking protein crystals into action: combining electrochemistry and infrared microscopy provides insight into [NiFe] hydrogenase mechanism Jun 1, 2018

Proteins are the nanoscale ‘machines’ that control almost all processes in cells, and revealing their structures is paramount to understanding how they work. X-ray crystallography is a valuable tool for providing ‘snapshot’ images of working proteins at an atomic level; however, some proteins are very tricky to freeze at particular moments in time.

Building 3D nanomaterials with sticky DNA bricks Jun 1, 2018

Several technological applications, spanning from energy storage to biomedicine, require the preparation of new materials with a finely organised 3D nanoscale structure. To achieve such delicate structures, they must be assembled from the bottom up, much like the iconic Lego bricks. However, unlike Lego, the building blocks in these scenarios are too small to be handled directly, so they must be encouraged to self-assemble.

Complex Self-assembly Inside Atmospheric Aerosol Droplets? Jun 1, 2018

Aerosols are significant to the Earth’s climate, with nearly all atmospheric aerosols containing organic compounds that often contain amphiphilic molecules. However, the nature of how these compounds are arranged within an aerosol droplet remains unknown. It was recently demonstrated that fatty acids in proxies for atmospheric aerosols self-assemble into highly ordered three-dimensional nanostructures known as lyotropic liquid crystalline phases. This finding may have implications for ...