7

NEWS

March 2024 ESRFnews

ESRF names Young

Scientist 2024

A geologist and computer scientist from

the University of Oslo in Norway has

been awarded this year’s ESRF Young

Scientist Award. Jessica McBeck,

who models earthquake conditions

in experiments at the ID19 and BM18

beamlines, was praised during a

ceremony at the ESRF User Meeting

“for her outstanding contribution to the

understanding of multi-scale fracture

network development in rocks.”

Forecasting the likelihood of

earthquakes in a given region over

narrow timescales has huge societal

benefits, as it can help governments

prepare the right communities, and

give as much notice as possible

for safe retreats and evacuations.

McBeck, who works with ERC grantee

François Renard at the University of

Oslo in Norway, studies the damage

that occurs to rock in the Earth’s crust

in the weeks and months prior to an

earthquake. In this she makes full use

of the ESRF’s X-ray brilliance, as it is

able to probe rocks at greater pressure

than any other synchrotron facility. Her

latest work involved the dynamic, in situ

measurement of the volume proportion

of extensile and shear fractures that

develop in compressed rock Commun

Earth Environ 4 352

The ESRF is extremely important

in my research as it allows me to delve

inside the rock in 4D and in particular

at the stress conditions at depths within

the crust where the most damaging

earthquakes occur she said

More than half of McBecks

publications feature ESRF data

According to the prize jury her work

potentially has a broad impact for the

prediction of earthquakes

J M C B E C K

ad interim director of research for the

life sciences, chemistry and soft-matter

science, an external review panel has

given a “clear recommendation” for a

renewed large-volume nano-imaging

beamline for biomedical research.

Kristina Djinovic Carugo, the head

of the European Molecular Biology

Laboratory Grenoble, and Andreas

Schaefer, a neurophysiologist at the

Francis Crick Institute in London,

UK, will be heading a workshop

next month to elaborate the science

case and key technical requirements,

targeting user operation in 2026–

2027, Krisch explained. “This is a tight

schedule, but I think we can do it.”

ERC backing

Following a lecture by Andrei

Petukhov of Utrecht University in

the Netherlands about self-assembly

in nanoscience, Schaefer himself gave

a talk in the afternoon, concerning his

work with ESRF scientist Alexandra

Pacureanu on the use of high-

resolution X-ray tomography to study

neural connections in the brain. Such

“connectomics” highly benefits from

the EBS, and in Pacureanu’s case has

resulted in several prestigious grants,

including from the European Research

Council (ERC). Indeed, including

Pacureanu, 10 ESRF users have so far

won grants from the ERC based on

EBS capabilities.

The User Meeting ran from

5–7 February. On the first day,

attendees had the choice of 11

different tutorials, while on the third

and final day there were four user-

dedicated microsymposia: “Towards

filming macromolecular movies at

the ESRF–EBS”; “Machine learning

and databases in X-ray spectroscopy”

(see “The AI revolution”, p12);

The complementary use of diffuse

and inelastic Xray scattering

and Introduction to the ESRF

HOAHub creating an atlas of

human organs in health ageing and

disease The mood throughout

was buoyed by the potential of EBS

powered instrumentation The

ESRF has always succeeded because

of the dedication of its staff and user

community said Krisch You the

users come up with crazy ideas and

we try to make them possible You

make the difference

or alkaline environment, but at

neutral pH it reassembles, potentially

trapping hundreds of iron oxide

molecules within its body. These

can then pass through cellular

barriers unheeded.

Such easy access leads scientists

such as Vallone to wonder if ferritin

could be harnessed to transport drugs

or diagnostic molecules to particular

targets – tumour cells, for instance,

which are avid consumers of iron

(and hence ferritin) due to their high

levels of replication. Knowledge of

ferritin’s interactions is important

for this application, and Vallone and

colleagues have managed to

determine the structure of the

ferritin-CD71 complex by cryo-

electron microscopy, at 3.9 A ̊

resolution (Nat. Commun. 10 1).

Happy customers

During her career, Vallone has been a

user of almost all the ESRF structural-

biology beamlines and facilities. “I’m

a big fan of this amazing scientific

facility,” she added.

Many scientists complement

their X-ray studies with other

types of experimental probes.

One such scientist is Giovanna

Fragneto, director of science for the

forthcoming European Spallation

Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden,

whose plenary talk extolled the

benefits of combining neutron and

synchrotron techniques to study cell

membranes. She discussed neutron-

scattering results from the Institut

Laue-Langevin – which has held

the record for neutron flux for over

50 years – that have allowed her and

her colleagues to develop advanced

models of biological membranes.

Fragneto and Vallone’s talks were

followed by Settes report on the EBS

upgrade and then reports by the ESRF

directors of research including those

on the status of beamline upgrades

see News from the Beamlines p19

In particular the audience heard that

the new stage suitable for samples of

up to 300 kg in mass is currently being

commissioned at the BM18 beamline

for hierarchical phasecontrast

tomography and that planning is

underway for an effective replacement

for the ID17 biomedical beamline

According to Michael Krisch ESRF

“The ESRF has always succeeded because of the

dedication of its staff and user community”