SOLEIL Users' Meeting 2009 - Users Interviews

The fourth SOLEIL Users’ Meeting took place at the Ecole Polytechnique (Palaiseau) on January 21^st and 22^nd, 2009, with more than 310 participants (5% from abroad). The meeting was opened by Marc SIMON, Chairman of the Users’ Committee.
The 2009 scientific program provided the status of research at SOLEIL. 

Three users talk about SOLEIL : - Felix Rey - Karim Benzerara - Marc Simon

The SOLEIL management did speak during the first session of the fourth SOLEIL Users’ Meeting. enlightening exciting results obtained on the eleven phase 1 beam lines. The phase 1 beamlines are now welcoming external users, since January 2008. There is a high pressure on beamtime proposals on all beam lines and 25% of the applications are already from outside France.
Eight phase 2 beam lines have already seen the beam. The designs of the last phase 2 beam lines are almost completed.
SOLEIL management received a warranty that all scheduled beamlines will receive their budget.
The accelerators and sources are working regularly and reliably.
The second cryomodule has been delivered early May and is in operation. During machine runs current up to 450 mA has been achieved. Tuning problems with the second cryomodule are still to be solved.
Fast orbit feedback is now operational.
Asymmetric filling of the ring has been tested and used satisfactorily.

Then, each of the speakers illustrated different thematics which were also the subjects of the round tables:

Robert McKELLAR, (National Research Council’s Steacie Institute for Molecular Sciences, CLS, Canada) presented the first high-resolution far-infrared spectroscopy results from the Canadian Light Source.

Dominique BOURGEOIS, (IBS Grenoble, France) spoke about combining protein X-ray crystallography with UV-visible and Raman microspectrophotometry.

Patrick DAVIDSON, (LPS, Orsay, France) showed how synchrotron SAXS techniques are powerful tools to study the structure and thermodynamics of lamellar phases doped with inorganic nanoparticles.

Odile ROBACH, CEA, Grenoble, France showed how surface X ray diffraction allows crystallographic structure determination very important in case of high pressure reactions.
Jean-Marc TONNERRRE, (Institut Néel, Grenoble, France) described the application of polarized soft X-ray resonant magnetic reflectivity to studies of metallic and complex oxides thin films.

Koen JANSSENS, University of Antwerpen, Belgium presented the investigation of earth science, environmental and cultural heritage materials by means of X-ray microprobes.

The last presentation was given by Laurent NAHON, (Head of DESIRS beamline) who presented first scientific results on the VUV high resolution variable polarization DESIRS beamline.

The round table sessions  is a privileged moment when each community have the opportunity to exchange different type of information (scientific, performances of the beamlines,…). Questions were collectively answered by the SOLEIL management on the following day favouring exchanges of information between the management and the users… They were for instance about the temporal structure of the beam (e.g. single-bunch) that will be available in a limited number of runs; …. An other wish concerns Long Term Projects (LTP) for beamline access and BAG proposals for beamline such as SAMBA, SWING, … Other concerns were raised, including access to SOLEIL (buses only run during standard working hours), and availability of the guest house for “local” users.

CEA, CNRS, INSERM and all the major French research institutions were represented at this conference. The synchrotron is a unifying instrument, of interest not just to biologists, physicists and chemists, but also to archeologists or environmental scientists, among other disciplines. Major universities have also shown a growing interest in SOLEIL, with strong representations from Pierre and Marie Curie and Cergy Pontoise Universities. The provinces were also well represented, with delegates from large conglomerations and scientific centers such as Grenoble, Marseille and Lyon. Outside France, SOLEIL is acquiring a growing scientific following, as there were 15 delegations from foreign universities and research institutes, including several from Poland, Sweden and Great Britain.

Felix Rey is Director of the Virology Department at the Institut Pasteur
“Eventually, it might be worth considering the possibility of constructing a contained secure beamline at SOLEIL that would allow pathogens to be studied”

- What is the subject of your research?
I study the structure of viruses and viral proteins. We are studying several viruses such as that of hepatitis C, the Chikungunya virus or herpes viruses. They all have in common a surface membrane and glycoproteins that permit them to infect the cell by fusing the viral membrane with that of the cell.

- What direct connections do the beamlines at SOLEIL have with your work?
They permit us to see the three-dimensional structure of proteins, and sometimes entire viruses, at the atomic level. For this, we produce and purify viral proteins. We then crystallize them in order to be able to put them through X-ray beams. We thus obtain diffraction patterns, from which we can calculate the position of all the atoms of the crystallized protein.

- Does your work at SOLEIL help you understand viruses in order to be able to combat them?
Yes, of course, because when we know the three-dimensional structure of viral proteins, we try to apply it in the in vivo context. It helps us to understand how a virus functions and how it changes its conformations. So, if we manage to block these conformational changes, we have obtained a viral cycle inhibitor. In the case of the HIV virus, for example, we have already found an inhibitor, a protein that blocks entry. This is one of the inhibitors discovered from crystallographic structures made with the help of a synchrotron.

- Which beamlines do you use?
Mainly the biocrystallography lines, but also beamlines which permit the conformation of the same proteins to be studied in solution, so that changes can be studied.

- Have there been important advances in knowledge about viruses through the use of synchrotrons?
Synchrotrons have made it possible to determine very complex viruses. In addition, synchrotron radiation has also permitted the structure of very many macromolecules, such as ribosomes, to be determined.

- Do you use other synchrotrons?
Yes, I have been working for a long time on synchrotrons in the USA, but also in Europe, the Hasylab in Hamburg, the ESRF in Grenoble and the Swiss Light Source in Villigen, Switzerland.

Do you need a new beamline?
Eventually, it might be worth considering the possibility of constructing a contained secure beamline at SOLEIL that would allow pathogens to be studied. In the meantime, after PROXIMA1, a new crystallography line will be up and running in 2011 (PROXIMA2) with a much smaller beam, which is very important for us, as the crystals that we manage to obtain are often very small.

Karim Benzerara is a CNRS researcher at the Institute of Mineralogy and Physics of Condensed Matter (Paris)
“The new beamline will allow us to study organic matter on a nanometric scale”

- Your research is focused on the mineral world?
I study interactions between the living and mineral worlds to understand how some living organisms are capable of degrading rocks. This research offers several possible approaches. One of these consists of understanding how micro-organisms such as bacteria can be trapped and fossilized in rocks for millions of years. This research also has medical applications. We are studying micro-organisms that infect humans, then form minerals, resulting in stones or calcification in the blood.

- You helped set up a beamline pre-project at SOLEIL. Why?
At the time, this line only existed in the USA, Germany and in Switzerland. It consists of a microscope that uses synchrotron radiation as its light source. This microscope will have a sufficiently high resolution to allow us to see micro-organisms and provide information on the major elements of their living material (carbon, oxygen and nitrogen) and also their mineral components. This new beamline, whose development will be the responsibility of Rachid Belkhou (SOLEIL), should be operational in 2011.

- What sorts of experiments were carried out on this beamline in the USA?
Among many others, one experiment was carried out on an Australian rock 2.7 billion years old. This rock contained small carbon bodies the same size as micro-organisms. As a result of using this beamline, we were able to observe something we would never have imagined: the existence of various organic molecules with a complex chemistry combined with elements other than carbon, such as oxygen. In addition, due to this beamline, we have come to realize that objects not linked to life can form morphologically similar objects made of carbon.

- Have similar experiments also been carried out in the medical field?
Yes, with American physicians. After observing urinary and aortic calcification problems they took samples of calcified tissue and incubated them in bacterial culture medium in order to reproduce this calcification. They then deduced that micro-organisms were responsible for this calcification. As a result of using this beamline, they were able to observe objects that looked like bacteria and discovered that they were not in fact bacteria, but organic molecules trapped by minerals that were being formed.

- Can such a beamline help you advance in your research?
It is quite clear that the new beamline will provide us with information that we could not acquire using any other technique and it will allow us to study organic matter, traces of life and minerals.

Marc Simon has become the new President of the Synchrotron SOLEIL Users’ Committee since September 2008. He is a CNRS research director in the Chemistry, Physics, Materials and Radiation Laboratory, Paris VI University.
“SOLEIL is probably the best synchrotron radiation source in the world”

- What are your objectives as the new president?
My main objective is to ensure that the Users’ Meeting attracts a larger number of participants as a result of a more exciting program. I would then like to develop stronger relations between SOLEIL management and users so that they can discuss their problems and expectations. This year, 350 people attended the conference, but there were 1,100 users at SOLEIL in 2008 and three new beamlines will be at their disposal in 2009. The potential exists and can only get stronger.

- What conclusions can you draw from this conference?
For this conference, the number of participants has risen, whereas it had dropped last year. This is explained by the fact that SOLEIL really got off the ground in 2008, with 11 beamlines running. Researchers turn to the Users’ Meeting for information on technical and scientific performance. In addition, there have been no delays in beamline construction this year. SOLEIL is probably the best synchrotron radiation source in the world. 

- How would you like to see future conferences organized?
The increasing number of users means that we will have to organize parallel sessions so that each scientific community can be given detailed information, with talks that are directly relevant to its research. We will also provide three or four plenary sessions aimed at the wider scientific community, to present some typical results obtained at SOLEIL.

- Have you discovered some real needs on the part of researchers during this conference?
Currently, the machine mainly functions in multi-bunch mode, i.e. almost the whole storage ring is filled with successive electron bunches. But some researchers would like to use the temporal structure of the beam, requiring the circulation of a single bunch of electrons, which is then used as a clock to measure rapid processes or to eliminate noise. This need is taken into account by SOLEIL, and the proportion of beamtime dedicated to that particular functioning mode should be increased.

- Which new beamlines are being installed in 2009?
Among the three beamlines under construction, one will be used by biologists to study interactions between living molecules with circularly polarized light. Another one will be dedicated to spectroscopy in the hard X-ray region for map making. The third beamline will be used for dilute matter in the soft X-ray region for high resolution electron and ion spectroscopy. From now on, SOLEIL can only grow in importance as there are ever increasing numbers of users and 26 beamlines will be operational by the end of 2011.