SLAC Today

Friday – March 10, 2006
(Image - EmrE protein)
View of the EmrE protein. Image courtesy of the Scripps Research Institute.

In Search of a Mechanism to Combat Multi-Drug Resistance

summarized by Heather Rock Woods

Using x-ray crystallography at SSRL and other U.S. light sources, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, recently solved the crystal structure of a multi-drug resistance protein.

Called EmrE, the protein makes bacteria resistant to tetracycline, ethidium, and other kinds of antibiotics by pushing them out of bacterial cells. Developing inhibitors that block EmrE and similar proteins could make old drugs effective again in fighting infectious diseases. The structural information revealed by ongoing x-ray crystallography studies may provide insight into developing inhibitors.  Learn more...

Simulating Supersymmetry

by Katie Yurkewicz,
    Science Grid This Week

Why the big hunt for SUSY's "sparticles?" Recent experiments have suggested that most of the matter in our universe is not made of familiar atoms, but of some new sort of "dark matter." Discovering a hidden world of sparticles will shed light on the nature of this dark matter, connecting observations performed at earth-based accelerators with those performed by astrophysicists and cosmologists.

(Photo - ATLAS detector)

The ATLAS detector under construction. Image courtesy of CERN.

One of the discoveries eagerly anticipated by particle physicists working on the world's next particle collider is that of supersymmetry, a theoretical lost symmetry of nature. Supersymmetry, often called SUSY, predicts the existence of a superpartner particle for every known particle.

Physicist Sanjay Padhi, a Chancellor Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, searches for SUSY using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Although the LHC and ATLAS won't start collecting experimental data until 2007, he and his colleagues are already hard at work generating the simulated data that is equally important to particle physics discoveries.

Read more in SGTW...

SLAC's Linear Cafe
Gets a New Look

by Kelen Tuttle

(Photo - Cafe renovation blueprints)

Renovation plans for the Linear Cafe (Click on image for larger version)

The confusion over whether you’re standing in line for Kung Pao Chicken or a Philly cheese steak at the Linear Café may soon be a thing of the past. The café will begin a renovation project in May to create more space in front of the serving lines and generally improve the café's look.

"We hope the renovation enhances the beauty of the café and improves the overall dining experience," said Café Manager George Lee.

To make more room for customers, the renovation will push back the east wall, where the soda machine currently sits, and remove the center island, relocating the soup and salad bar along adjacent walls (see above image). New flooring will also be installed throughout the café.

"Very few people come to the café alone," said Lee. "People tend to cluster in groups, and that makes the area in front of the serving lines crowded. We're hoping this renovation will dissipate that congestion and make queuing up easier."

Lee says the renovation should not interfere with service, since construction crews will only work after hours and on weekends. When necessary, café staff will cook outside on the grill.  Additionally, Lee says that prices will not increase because of the renovation.

SLAC Today will provide further information about the cafeteria renovation as it becomes available.

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