Biological use of synchrotron radiation needs European coordination

Europe risks losing its lead in certain aspects of biological and biomedical research if it fails to keep pace with its competitors on the supply of synchrotron radiation. Planned third generation synchrotron sources are urgently needed. But existing sources could also be run more efficiently if their use and development were coordinated on a Europe-wide scale. These are the chief conclusions of an independent review panel set up by the European Science Foundation to look into "the needs for European synchrotron radiation and related beam lines for biological and biomedical research".

Synchrotron radiation has become an indispensable tool for revealing the structure of many biological molecules. Structure determines a molecule’s function and mechanisms of action and so is essential knowledge for drug design and fundamental research. The brilliant X-rays reveal the position of atoms in a molecule using the basic principles of crystallography discovered by Max von Laue and the Braggs almost a century ago.

Advances in ease of use over the past five years has lead to an accelerating demand for synchrotron radiation from biologists. The need to determine the structure of new proteins encoded by genes revealed by the human genome project, is expected to drive demand even higher in future. "We can say for sure that there is a growing need amongst biologists for synchrotron radiation, but it is difficult to quantify over the next five years," says Professor Gunnar Öquist, Secretary General of the Swedish Natural Sciences Research Council and chairman of the review panel. "We are bringing in a new group of users which is very big. But the biologists are not very well organised to push for their needs."

The review "strongly endorses" plans to replace synchrotron sources in the UK and France and to build new sources in Switzerland, Germany and Spain. In the meantime, the efficiency of existing sources could be improved if they were better staffed, provided with new, improved detectors, and if the allocation of beam time were speeded up to allow biologists "fast track" access.

Bottlenecks that hamper efficiency would come to light quickly if the biological use of national and European synchrotron facilities were coordinated by a Europe-wide committee of suppliers and users established under the framework of the ESF. One issue the committee could investigate is whether synchrotron facilities should offer crystallography for routine samples, so removing the need for scientists to travel to sources to conduct experiments themselves. Another is the scope for private companies offering protein crystallography services for a fee. There may also be a need for a separate European organisation to operate, maintain and develop beam lines dedicated to biological research at national synchrotron facilities.

The existing beamlines run by EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (at DESY in Hamburg, Germany; and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France) provide "insufficient support for full biological use", says the review and it recommends that EMBL and ESRF "find the means to put this right".

ESF Secretary General, Enric Banda, commented: "Working to a tight timetable, the review panel has produced an independent and authoritative report and made a number of very clear recommendations. The European Science Foundation will now be looking at ways to effectively address the report’s implications both through our own scientific standing committees and by promoting dialogues with other interested parties, such as EMBL."

The review was conducted by a panel of scientists not directly involved in research using synchrotron sources under Professor Öquist’s chairmanship. The panel was advised by a reference group of synchrotron users chaired by Professor Kenneth Holmes of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, with Professor Keith Wilson of the University of York as vice-chairman. The review was requested by the UK Medical Research Council which wanted to assess the European supply and demand for synchrotron sources before committing funds to a new source in the UK.

Ends

Press contacts:

Andrew Smith
Head of Communication and Information, ESF
+33 (0)3 88 76 71 32
or
Professor Gunnar Öquist
Secretary General, Swedish Natural Science Research Council
+46 8 454 42 01

Notes for editors:

1. The European Science Foundation is the European association of 62 major national funding agencies devoted to scientific research in 21 countries. The ESF assists its member organisations in two main ways: by bringing scientists together in its scientific programmes, networks, exploratory workshops and European research conferences, to work on topics of common concern, and through the joint study of issues of strategic importance in European science policy.

2. Review of the needs for European synchrotron and related beam-lines for biological and biomedical research will be published by the ESF in October 1998 (price 75FF). Review copies are available from the ESF Communication and Information Unit

For further information contact: Andrew Smith

Category: Media Centre, Press Releases 1998