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Nicotinamidase catalyzes hydrolysis of nicotinamide to nicotinic acid and ammonia, in the NAD(+) salvage pathway. This enzyme activity has a fortuitous medical benefit since in Mycobacterium tuberculosis it converts the prodrug pyrazinamide nto the bacteriostatic pyrazinoic acid. Pyrazinoic acid is active against semidormant tubercle bacilli and together with rifampicin and isoniazid, forms the front line tuberculosis treatment. Studies of the enzyme have revealed aspects of structure ...
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Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed that Diamond Light Source will receive funding for Phase III expansion in the Government’s spending review, part of a strategy to support world-class science and invest in infrastructure projects that contribute to economic growth.
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Work by researchers at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron facility, has resulted in over 1,000 publications, just three years after its formal opening.
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A polar phase of the perovskite NaNbO3 has been successfully synthesised using sol-gel techniques. Detailed characterisation of this phase has been undertaken using high-resolution powder diffraction (X-ray and neutron) and 23Na multiple-quantum (MQ) MAS NMR, supported by second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Samples of NaNbO3 were also synthesised using conventional solid-state methods and were observed to routinely comprise a ...
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Axons are the communication channels of the body. Up to a metre in length, they connect parts of the body to the brain, carrying signals from muscles, organs and tissues. As the central nervous system develops these axons must follow very precise paths through the body. The route that they take is guided by proteins, which signal paths that the axon should and shouldn’t take. A group of proteins called semaphorins are known to be responsible for directing axons away from inappropriate areas. ...
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The regulation of the alternative splicing of messenger RNA allows mammals and other eukaryotic organisms to greatly enrich the diversity of the proteins coded by their genomes. Most eukaryotic genes are fragmented into introns that need to be joined up before the encoded protein is synthesised. But by combining the introns in different ways, the cell can make different proteins from the same genetic material.
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A protein complex called MRE11-RAD50-NBS1 (MRN) coordinates the detection and repair of one of the most hazardous forms of DNA damage, the double strand break (DSB), in which both strands of a DNA helix are cut. The nuclease and scaffolding components of MRN, MRE11 and RAD50 respectively, have been widely studied at the molecular level, however the molecular basis of NBS1 function remains undefined. Using beamline I04 at Diamond we have been able to solve a 2.3 Å crystal structure of the ...
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Polycomb group proteins have an essential role in maintaining repressive epigenetic states and silencing unwanted gene expression during development. Disregulation of polycomb proteins have also been implicated in many types of cancer. Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is the key enzyme complex that marks repressive chromatin domains by methylating lysine 27 of histone H3. PRC2 is composed of four ubunits, EZH2, which contains the catalytic SET domain, EED, Suz12 and RbAp48. Using ...
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During the past 18 months, we have developed a novel micro-beam Laue diffraction setup on beamline B16 with a dedicated in situ loading capability. This setup has been used to study the evolution of lattice orientation and Laue diffraction spot shape during in situ loading of a large grained Ni polycrystalline sample. Lattice orientation could be successfully mapped up to 14% plastic strain. Individual grains were predicted to appear “hard” or “soft” depending on their lattice orientation ...
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The Membrane Protein Laboratory (MPL) at Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire (UK) is pleased to announce that our call for proposals is now open.
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The search for new and improved ion-exchange materials for nuclear waste remediation continues to be an important topic, especially given the issues over cleaning up existing legacy waste sitting in storage ponds, dealing with the reactors due to be decommissioned shortly and being prepared in advance to deal with radionuclides created by the new build of reactors recently announced. One family of materials that shows promise is layered metal phosphates, where cations such as Sr, Cs and Co ...
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The three-dimensional structure of [NiFeSe] hydrogenase from D. vulgaris Hildenborough in its oxidised, “as isolated” state has been determined from a 3-wavelength MAD experiment at the Fe K-edge on Diamond Beamline I04. Crystals were obtained in space group P21 with cell parameters a = 60.6, b = 91.2, c = 66.7 Å, b = 101.7º and one hydrogenase molecule in the asymmetric unit. This work has recently been published [1]. Previously, only the structure of [NiFeSe] hydrogenase from Dm. baculatum ...
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The structure of a protein complex between a bacterial and a human protein solved using data collected at Diamond Light Source (UK) and the ESRF (FRANCE) has revealed the way in which bacteria that cause bacterial meningitis mimic human cells to evade the body’s innate immune system. The study, published in Nature, could lead to the development of new vaccines that give better protection against meningitis B, the strain which accounts for the vast majority of cases of the disease in the UK.
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Prof. Ian Robinson, who holds a joint appointment with University College London (UCL) and Diamond Light Source, has been awarded funding by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) for a 5-year BBSRC ‘Diamond Fellowship'.
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Violerythrin, a blue colored carotenoid, has been investigated by X-ray crystallography and by steady-state and ultrafast time-resolved absorption spectroscopy.
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Seasonal epidemics and worldwide pandemics caused by influenza A viruses are of continuous public health concern. During infection, the viral nonstructural (NS1) protein stimulates phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling, an essential cell survival pathway commonly mutated in human cancers. A structure of the NS1 effector domain in complex with the p85β inter-SH2 (coiled-coil) domain suggests that NS1 uses the coiled-coil as a structural tether to sterically prevent normal inhibitory ...
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Crystal engineering of nanoporous structures has not yet exploited the heme motif so widely found in proteins. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis on Beamline I19 found that metal complexes of a phthalocyanine, a close analog of heme, forms molecular crystals that contain large interconnected voids (8 nm3), defined by a cubic assembly of six phthalocyanines. Rapid ligand exchange at the metal centres is achieved within these phthalocyanine nanoporous crystals (PNCs) by ...
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Porous materials have wide ranging applications in areas such as hydrogen storage, catalysis and drug delivery. In rigid porous materials such as zeolites, the ability of the material to adsorb depends on the fixed size and shape of the pores. Until the mid 1990s most synthetic porous materials were either zeolites and their analogs or activated carbons. The discovery of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) opened the possibility of more flexible frameworks, where the geometry of the pores can ...
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The Structures of Life
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Molecular layers held together by non-covalent interactions on solid surfaces have gained increasing importance in recent times owing to their diverse commercial and academic applications and the ability to control behaviour by changing the molecular architecture of the adsorbing compounds. High-flux experiments on the powder diffraction beamline I11 at Diamond have enabled very accurate structural characterisation of a particular class of organic compounds, alkyl amides, adsorbed on the ...
