The Game Changer: Molecular Machines in Motion

Crystallography is a multidisciplinary field that seeks to uncover the exact arrangements of atoms within molecules and materials -- information of keen interest to modern science because it helps to define their real-life biological, chemical and physical properties. One huge area within this field is macromolecular crystallography, which involves making crystals out of molecules, shooting them with X-rays, collecting their diffraction patterns and solving their structures. Such work can guide the creation of new, lifesaving drugs, uncover biological processes fundamental to human health and contribute to major advances that impact our economy and our world.

This video explores one new tool that is revolutionizing how scientists are doing crystallography today. In the last decade, the Department of Energy invested $600 million on the world’s first X-ray laser, which is now in operated by the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) directorate at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory near San Francisco. One big group of users of this new instrument is the BioXFEL Science and Technology Center, which was established by the National Science Foundation in 2013 and involves researchers at universities including Cornell, UC San Francisco, Stanford, Rice, ASU, University at Buffalo and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.