A Berkeley Lab-led team of researchers used multiple high-powered X-ray techniques at the Advanced Light Source to image the process in E. coli bacteria at the micro-, meso-, and nanoscales. The imaging technique they developed enabled them to visualize the bacteria’s chromosome at higher resolutions than ever before, and without the need for labeling, which slows down the process but is required by most other techniques.
ALS-ENABLE Helps Decode a Calcium-dependent Switch
The Kv7 family of voltage-gated potassium channels control excitability in the heart, brain, and ear, and harbor mutations associated with arrhythmias, epilepsy, and deafness. A recent study, led by Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging (MBIB) faculty scientist Daniel Minor’s group in the Cardiovascular Research Institute at UCSF, used both diffraction and scattering beamlines of ALS-ENABLE to reveal a universal switch mechanism by which the calcium sensor protein calmodulin controls the action of these channels. The findings, reported in the journal Neuron, provide a key link between Kv7 channel activity and cellular signaling pathways. Greg Hura, a research scientist in MBIB, was also a co-author on the paper. Watch a video detailing the work.
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