2005 Media Releases
June 23, 2005
Development in coherent x-ray science
La Trobe University is one of a number of Australian and overseas universities and other organisations sharing a $9 million ARC grant over five years to develop a
Centre of Excellence in Coherent X-Ray Science.
La Trobe University’s Department of Biochemistry.
La Trobe’s departments of Physics and Biochemistry will participate in the program scheduled to start later this year.
La Trobe University Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow, Dr Andrew Peele of the Department of Physics, explained that X-ray sources were becoming ever brighter, and x-ray lasers would be available in the next ten years.
‘These sources will open up whole new areas of investigation such as the structural determination of proteins not amenable to conventional methods,’ Dr Peele said.
Professor Leann Tilley noted that ‘the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coherent X-ray Science will bring physicists, chemists and biologists together to develop fundamentally new approaches to probing biological structures and processes.
‘It combines world-class expertise in imaging, structural biology, laser science and molecular theory. The project will develop novel high-resolution imaging and probing using the Australian Synchrotron, and ultimately x-ray lasers.
‘An overarching scientific aim of the centre is the determination of the structure of membrane proteins,’ Professor Tilley said.
Another La Trobe academic staff member involved in the research will be Dr Mike Ryan of the Department of Biochemistry.
Collaborating or contributing organisations in the project include Melbourne (host institution), Swinburne and Monash universities; CSIRO divisions of Health Sciences and Nutrition and Manufacturing and Infrastructure Technology; the Australian Synchrotron Research Program; Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research; Riken National University of Singapore; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, Chicago; and the Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.
For further information:
Please contact Dr Andrew Peele, Tel: +61 3 9479 2651, or La Trobe University Media and Publications Office, Tel: +61 3 9479 2316.