U.S. Drug Design Expert to Speak on Synchrotron Benefits

Posted May 01, 1998


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 30, 1998
98-04-12-OTHER

U. S. Drug Design Expert to Speak on Synchrotron
Benefits

Dr. Cele Abad-Zapatero, associate research fellow at Abbott
Laboratories in Illinois, will give seminar and lead a roundtable
discussion Friday, May 1 at 2 p.m. on The Impact of Synchrotron
Radiation in Biotechnology: Present and Future in Room 106 Biology
Building.

The event is jointly sponsored by the U of S Office of the Vice-
President (Research) and the Saskatoon and District Chamber of
Commerce. Canadian academic and commercial scientists are keen
on seeing a proposed synchrotron go ahead in Saskatoon.
Synchrotrons are sources of intense light?from infrared to X-ray
wavelengths?which can be used for biotechnology, medical,
chemical, environmental and materials research.

Dr. Abad-Zapatero was the driving force behind getting a beamline
built for protein crystallography research at a billion-dollar, two year-
old synchrotron at the Argonne National Laboratory in a Chicago
suburb.

The beamline, a device for focusing particular wavelengths of
synchrotron radiation onto samples to be analyzed, is shared by 12
drug companies in the U.S. Protein crystallography involves
determining the structure of protein molecules, research which can
lead to the design of new drugs.

"He?s particularly knowledgeable about building a beamline at a major
synchrotron for protein crystallography, and that?s what we really need
to do here," said U of S chemist Wilson Quail.

Quail and U of S biochemist Louis Delbaere do protein
crystallography research which they hope may one day lead to a new
drug to treat diabetes. But they have to travel to the U.S., Germany,
and Japan to collect synchrotron data.

"Our access is being diminished continuously because these other
places are being so heavily booked by their own scientists," said
Quail. "It would be infinitely better to have a synchrotron here."

He says synchrotron data are far superior to data obtained at
traditional X-ray sources. "We get higher quality resolution so we can
see the fine details of molecular structure much more accurately," he
said.

Scientists from 100 universities, 36 companies and 27 research
institutions currently are performing or preparing experiments at
Chicago?s Advanced Photon Source. When the huge machine is
fully utilized, some 4,000 scientists a year are expected to carry out
research at the facility. Illinois?s governor has included $6.7 million in
the state?s 1999 budget to construct a commercial beamline that will
enable small- and medium-sized firms to use the machine on a fee-for-
service basis.

Dr. Dennis Skopik, director of the Saskatchewan Accelerator
Laboratory on the U of S campus, says the Illinois synchrotron has
much higher energy and is much more expensive that Saskatoon?s
proposed Canadian Light Source (CLS).

"But we?d produce the same quality of X-ray beams due to a newer
technology," he said. "With both synchrotrons, the X-ray beam is a
million times more powerful than medical X-rays."

Surveys show Canadian protein crystallographers have to wait
between three months and two years to use foreign synchrotrons. This
severely restricts Canadian researchers because their competitors
move ahead in the meantime. "Canadian researchers are being left
out of the ?hot? areas of research," said Skopik.

A proposal for partial funding of the CLS will be presented to the newly
created Canada Foundation for Innovation this summer.

Dr. Abad-Zapatero will be available for media interviews at 3:30 p.m.

For more information, contact:

Dr. Dennis Johnson
University of Saskatchewan Professor Emeritus
President-Elect of the Saskatoon and District Chamber of Commerce
(306) 966-6061
(306) 966-6058 fax