CLS NEWS - September 2024

Freshwater oysters key to developing stronger, "greener" glues

Freshwater oysters produce an adhesive?that may hold the secret to developing eco-friendly glues with applications from dental care to construction and shipping. An international research team used the CLS?to determine what the unique glue is made of. Full story

Annual users’ meeting

Register now for the CLS AUM on Oct. 22-25. The meeting will showcase some of the world-class research happening at our facility and provide the latest updates. About the event

Announcing 2023 award winners

Congratulations to:

• Stefan Kycia, University of Guelph, for?being awarded the 2023 Allen Pratt Memorial Award for Community Service.
• Gaixia Zhang, école de Technologie Supérieure, on receiving the Early Career Investigator Excellence Award.
• Lucia Zuin, CLS Senior Scientist, Beamline Responsible?(VLS-PGM), on receiving the 2023 User Support Award.
• Pranay Shrestha, University of Toronto, on winning the 2023 G. Michael Bancroft PhD Thesis Award. Thesis:?Heterogeneous Water Transport in Fuel Cell Materials.
• Lucas Korol, University of Saskatchewan, on receiving the 2023 G. Michael Bancroft Masters Thesis Award. Thesis:?Global optimization of resonant x-ray reflectometry models: Analysis of perovskite oxide heterostructures.

Don't miss several of these award winners' talks at the?CLS AUM?on Oct. 24-25. About the awards

Time capsule opening shines light on CLS?history

In 1999, a time capsule was buried at the groundbreaking event for the CLS. To mark the 25th anniversary, we invited special guests (some are pictured here) who played a crucial role in CLS' construction to witness the unveiling of the time capsule's artifacts. See highlights

Novel drug molecule could help treat Parkinson’s disease in young patients

A novel drug molecule studied at the CLS by researchers from McGill University?could reactivate housekeeping functions in brain cells of young Parkinson’s patients, paving the way for potential future treatments for this incurable, degenerative disease. Full story

Reducing risk of bone fracture in people with rare genetic disorder

A team from McGill University and Shriners Hospitals for Children Canada used the CLS to study the bones of mice with Marfan Syndrome in the hopes of better understanding the condition in humans. Full story

Recovering rare earth elements from coal ash for clean energy technologies

A University of Regina?team used the CLS to study ash from coal plants in Alberta and Saskatchewan to learn?how much rare earth elements the ashes contained and how they could be extracted.?Full story

New insight into how farming practices can help mitigate climate change

Using the CLS and the Advanced Light Source, researchers from Kansas State University are exploring how different farming practices can affect the amount of carbon that gets stored in soil. Full story?

Linac replacement updates

We have been?preparing our new linear accelerator?to ensure it will create an excellent vacuum. Keep up with the project

WAO 2025

The?14th international Workshop on Accelerator Operations?will take place on Sept. 22-26, 2025 in?Saskatoon. Save the date

Featured papers of the month

• Wang, Lei; Chen, Zhiwen; Xiao, Yi; Huang, Linke; Wang, Xiyang et al. (2024).?Stabilized Cuδ+-OH species on in situ reconstructed Cu nanoparticles for CO2-to-C2H4 conversion in neutral media.?Nature Communications 15(1) .?10.1038/s41467-024-52004-2.?Far-IR, HXMA
• Li, Jiarui; Green, Robert J.; Domínguez, Claribel; Levitan, Abraham; Tseng, Yi et al. (2024).?Signatures of polarized chiral spin disproportionation in rare earth nickelates.?Nature Communications 15(1) .?10.1038/s41467-024-51576-3.?REIXS
• Fu, Hao; Liu, Hongjie; Wang, Xiyang; Zhang, Wenhua; Zhang, Hui et al. (2024).?Reverse Hydrogen Spillover on Metal Oxides for Water‐Promoted Catalytic Oxidation Reactions.?Advanced Materials.?10.1002/adma.202407534.?HXMA, BXDS-WHE
• Mashindi, Victor; Terban, Maxwell W.; Meira, Debora Motta; Moreno, Beatriz D.; Morongoa, Prettier et al. (2024).?Elucidating the local structure and electronic properties of a highly active overall alkaline water splitting NixCo1-xO/hollow carbon sphere catalyst.?International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 80, 137-150.?10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.07.122.?BXDS-WLE, BioXAS-Spectroscopy
• Xu, Shuai; Zhou, Jigang; Zuin, Lucia; Sun, Di; Zhao, Julia et al. (2024).?Synthesis of hierarchical graphene coated porous Si anode for lithium-ion batteries.?Journal of Energy Storage 97, 112789.?10.1016/j.est.2024.112789. VLS-PGM
• Carter Blocka, Xiao Fan Ding, Ning Zhu, Lifeng Zhang, 2024, Experimental investigation of dynamic drying in single pharmaceutical granules containing acetaminophen or carbamazepine using synchrotron X-ray micro computed tomography, International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Volume 665?https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2024.124664.?BMIT
• Radwa Asar, Poonam Dhindwal, Antonio Ruzzini, (2024) Structural and functional analysis of a bile salt hydrolase from the bison microbiome, Journal of Biological Chemistry,107769,?https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2024.107769.?CMCF
• Brian Ciruna, Patrick Pumputis, Ran Xu et al. (2024) Oxidative stress induces intervertebral ECM remodelling, elevated tissue stiffness and idiopathic-like scoliosis, https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4978808/v1?BMIT