Elettra-Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. and University of Trieste, ITALY
Thursday 28 November 2019 | 11:00 am – ICGEB Trieste, ITALY
Life Science Research and Future Perspectives at Elettra
Host: L. Banks
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A. is a no-profit company that operates the third generation synchrotron radiation source Elettra and the free-electron-laser (FEL) source FERMI for international users from more than 45 different countries. Many of the beamlines and experimental stations have been built and are operated in collaboration with international organizations, including IAEA, ICTP, Jülich Forschungszentrum, IIS Bangalore, Charles University, TU-Graz, CNR, etc. About half of the research being conducted at Elettra by means of x-ray diffraction, small-angle x-ray scattering, x-ray fluorence, infrared spectroscopy and microscopy, x-ray microscopy, ptychography, is in the domain of the life sciences. The FERMI FEL user facility complements the Elettra source for time-resolved measurements on the femtosecond time-scale. FERMI is the only EUV and x-ray FEL worldwide exploiting external seeding. The resulting pulse-to-pulse wavelength, linewidth and intensity stability makes the FERMI source currently unique in the international panorama. We will briefly present some of the life-science applications of the beamlines and experimental stations, as well as the capabilities of the ancillary facilities for protein expression, crystalization, atomic force microscopy, computer simulations, data analysis, etc. Access to all facilities is through peer-review. An ambitious upgrade plan to replace the existing Elettra storage ring with a new multi-bend achromat lattice leading to an increase in brightness of two orders on magnitude has been recently funded.