• Researchers used SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source to study the AspH enzyme – a potential therapeutic target for cancer treatment – and the isopenicillin N synthase (IPNS) enzyme, which is essential for creating all of the medicinally important penicillin antibiotics.
• By leveraging the power of ultrabright, ultrashort X-ray bursts, they found that these enzymes catalyze reactions in surprising ways.
• If scientists can better understand the structure and function of these enzymes, they could potentially use them as biomarkers and therapeutic targets for cancer, or for a method to develop new antibiotics.

Femtosecond X-ray pulses. Very cool.