NCI X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) initiative

阐明了配体引发晶格相变的物理基础，发现了晶格中的分子同步现象。这个项目是“分子电影”可视化的基础。该项目的主要技术和工具是位于加利福尼亚州梅诺帕克的X射线自由电子激光器（XFEL）。这部分工作已在四篇手稿中发表，其中包括本财年内在Nat. Comm.上发表的一篇论文。值得一提的是，我的实验室已经建立了使用XFEL研究RNA结构动力学的研究计划，从样品制备，微米/微米表征，数据收集，原位数据分析和后数据采集，计算和解释。因此，我们能够充分利用这种新技术，XFEL，探索RNA的结构动力学和构象空间。不幸的是，由于正在进行的大流行病，旅行禁令阻止了我们前往现场进行实验，阻止了我们在过去16个月收集数据，并使任何进一步的进展都具有挑战性。因此，我对我们的计划进行了认真和战略性的改变。在目前的非旅行环境下，我们不得不采用不同的技术来实现探索RNA结构动力学和构象空间的研究目标，而不是依赖XFEL这种我们无法控制且极易受到干扰的资源。

We elucidated the physical basis for the lattice phase transition triggered by ligand and discovered a fundamental phenomenon called molecular synchronization in crystal lattices. This project is fundamental to the visualization of "molecular movies." The main technology and tool for this project is the X-ray free electron laser (XFEL), which is located in Meno Park, Ca. This part of the work has been published in four manuscripts, including a paper in Nat. Comm. within this FY. It is noteworthy to mention that my lab has established the research program using XFEL to study RNA structural dynamics, from sample prep, micron/nanocrystal characterization, data collection, data analysis in situ and post-data-acquistiion, computing, and interpretation. Thus we are in the position to take full advantage of this new technology, XFEL, to explore the structural dynamics and conformational space of RNA. Unfortunately, the travel ban due to the ongoing pandemic has prevented us from traveling to the site to perform experiments, preventing us from collecting data for the past 16 months and making any further progress challenging. As a result, I have made a conscientious and strategic change in our program. Instead of relying on the XFEL, the resource that we have no control over and is highly susceptible to interruption, given the current circumstance of non-travel, we were forced to adopt different technologies to carry out and fulfill our research goal of exploring RNA structural dynamics and conformational space.