Synchrotron Techniques for African Research and Technology: A Step-Change in Structural Biology and Energy Materials.

In June 2021, scientists celebrated the numerous achievements of a unique collaboration between researchers from the UK and Africa and the UK's national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source [[1]]. The highlight of the research was done by START PDRA Dr. Andani Mulelu, Angela Kirykowicz, and START Co-I Dr. Jeremy Woodward, who visualized a plant nitrilase and were able to explain and modify the substrate specificity of these enzymes. Creating an Africa Block Allocation Group (BAG) at Diamond with START-trained PDRAs assisting with the handling of samples. Here, START PDRAs Dr. Blake Balcomb and Dr. Anton Hamann design medicines to treat tuberculosis, malaria, and S. aureus infections using fragment-based drug discovery resources on the XChem beamline at Diamond. [Extracted from the article]