In this newsletter, we report on recent cancer drug research using room temperature crystallography at the FlexX beamline. This experiment, which took place in June of 2020, was the first to be performed at CHESS during the COVID-19 lockdown.

We also highlight research performed at the Functional Materials Beamline, FMB. Researchers from NIST utilized FMB’s unique focusing optics, flexible sample space, and SAXS capabilities to measure the rheology and structure of complex fluids. Studying these fluids under precisely controlled conditions gives insight into widely used industrial processing methods such as injection, spraying, coating, and jetting – all which require high flow rates in confined geometries. 

Did you know that CHEXS users of the FAST beamline can access the SMB beamline via the “hutch-swap” program, and vice-versa? The ability to simultaneously perform far-field and near-field HEDM allowed a collaboration of researchers to understand both the micromechanical stress state driving deformation and the full 3D reorientation of the crystal lattice during plastic deformation.

Please save the date for the 2022 CHESS Users’ Meeting on June 7^th and 8^th.  After two years of covid-19-forced on-line meetings, this year’s meeting will be in person! We will return to our traditional format of a large general session for reviewing the year and presenting all the exciting changes at CHESS followed by focused scientific and hands-on practical workshops. More information to follow. We look forward to seeing everyone again this June.

Joel Brock, Director, CHESS (email Joel)

The 2022 CHESS Users' Meeting will be held on June 7^th & 8^th, and will be in-person. Join us for an exciting few days of plenary sessions, posters, and workshops. Keep an eye on our website for more information coming soon.

Utilizing the unique focusing optics, flexible sample space, and SAXS capabilities at the FMB-beamline, a group of researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology measured the rheology and structure of complex fluids subjected to extreme flow velocities while confined within micrometer-sized capillaries.

For the first time, a microscale plastic strain field (also known as crystallographic slip) has been non-destructively reconstructed in 3D in a deforming alloy

Many cancer cells require the enzyme glutaminase synthase C (GAC) to grow well. Consequently drugs that inhibit GAC are potential cancer treatments, and much work is being done to find the best ones. The Cerione group reports some of this work.