On the Cover:
©Fredric Weber, Penn State Campus Photography
The picture on the cover is a view into the inner workings of a new kind of microscope, based on mass spectrometry, that is under development in the laboratory of Nicholas Winograd, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry.
Students in Winograd’s lab are working to perfect a new kind of microscope based on mass spectrometry. With their method, highly focused energetic massive particles are shot at the sample to force molecules to leave the surface from a specific location. Repeating this process thousands of times at different locations eventually yields information akin to a picture. The resulting images provide information about the chemical composition of the material with higher spatial resolution than is possible with normal optical microscopy, which reveals just shape or color. The picture on the front cover is a view into the inner workings of the microscope.
Winograd’s group is especially interested in obtaining chemical information about single biological cells. In collaboration with Andy Ewing, holder of the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences, they hope to be able to find out precisely where, within a cell, certain drug molecules eventually become localized so that the function of the drug can be more directly understood. For example, a specific drug could have a very high concentration in the blood stream, but never find its way to the target cell or tissue.
Sample preparation is a major challenge for these experiments since they need to be performed in an evacuated environment. To study cells or tissue, the team has developed a way of rapidly freezing the sample in the laboratory, and of fracturing it open directly in the microscope to preserve the chemical composition.
Recently, the team has discovered that there is correlation between highly curved surfaces of membranes and the phospholipids that make up the cell membrane. Such detailed chemical information has not been possible to achieve before, and their results are spurring many groups around the world to construct similar types of instrumentation.
Click here for an up-close look at the instrument pictured on the cover.
In This Issue: |
Fall 2006, Volume 25 |
Feature Story
Neuroscience at Penn State
Research Rundown
New Tools Developed for Studying Neurodegenerative Brain Disorders New Method Developed for Exploring Frustrated Systems in Nature New Method for Dating Art Prints and Early Books Borrows Know-How from Genetic Science Research Paper Illuminates How Light Pushes Atoms Cosmic Jet Looks Like Giant Tornado in Space New Process Builds Electronic Function into Optical Fiber Giant Deep-Sea Tubeworm’s Meal Ticket Comes in as a Skin Infection Undersea Microbes Active but Living on the Slow Side Deep X-ray Surveys Reveal Black-Hole Population, Glimpse History of the Universe Gases in One Dimension—Not Your Typical Desk Toy(with video feature South African Clone of Penn State Telescope Makes First Scientific Discovery Researchers Look Beyond the Birth of the Universe Massive Duplication of Genes May Solve Darwin’s “Abominable Mystery” about Flowering Plants Methane-Belching Bugs Inspire New Theory of the Origin of Life on Earth Exercise Helps Recovery from Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer (with audio feature) Huge Star Cluster Discovered in Neighborhood of Milky Way Supernova Survey Explodes with New Findings How Big is Big? Probing the Conditions of the Universe on the Largest Scales Two Milky Way Companion Galaxies Discovered Scientists Piece Together Most Distant Cosmic Explosion Swift Satellite Detects Unusual Cosmic Explosion X-rays Fly as Cracking Comet Streaks Across the Sky
Honoris Causa
Grenfell Elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Ashtekar Offered Kramers Visiting Chair in The Netherlands Murakami Honored as Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences O'Hara Receives Presidential Early Career Award at White House Krebs Receives Beckman Award and Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award Keating Honored With Dreyfus Award Ewing Recognized for Research Achievements Holland Advises National Committees on Improvements in Human Identification Tombros Named Chairman of Alpharma Board of Directors Theoretical Physicist Named National Geographic Emerging Explorer Higson Named Evan Pugh Professor Cameron Appointed Berg Professor of Biochemistry Hammes-Schiffer Named Eberly Professor of Biotechnology Bressan Named Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Collins Named Distinguished Professor of Physics Weiss Named Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Physics Kao receives Graduate Program Chair Leadership Award Larson and Sen Honored as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Rao Recognized with Thirtieth Honorary Doctorate in Portugal
Stephon Alexander John Asbury Martin Bojowald Derek Fox John Fricks Helge Kristian Jenssen Andrey Krasilnikov Xiantao Li Aimin Liu Kevin Luhman Kathleen Postle Paul Sommers Yanming Wang Jun Zhu
Grieb Takes New Assistant Director of Stewardship Position Musick Joins Eberly College of Science Science BS/MBA Program Fulfills Student and Industry Needs Eberly College of Science Participates in Arts Fest Undergraduate Research: A "Win-Win" for All Gift Stories Trustee Matching Scholarships Honor Parents Ming Chu Receives 2006 Humanitarian Award Booth Honored with Achievement Award Hahn and Pelak Named Alumni Fellows Volkin Named Distinguished Alumni Distinguished Service Award Winners Outstanding Science Alumni Award Price and Schneider Receive 2006 C.I. Noll Awards Alumni and Friends "See Stars" at Fels Planetarium Reissmanns Host Event at "The Beach" Whodunit? Murder in Spruce Cottage First Jefferson Reunion Planned for November Retired Faculty and Their Spouses Attend a Breakfast Reunion Alumni Notes Faculty Obituaries Alumni Obituaries
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