Canadian Light Source

At the CLS, advanced imaging is helping researchers study a promising new approach to Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan are testing whether a treatment originally developed for cancer can help break down the harmful plaques associated with Alzheimer's. Using lab-grown mini-brains, the team is tracking how the treatment affects plaque formation and brain structure.

Research begins with understanding, and every new discovery brings us one step closer to better options for people living with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.

Learn more at https://bit.ly/4xD3koo

Alzheimer's Disease International University of Saskatchewan

Athul Dileepkumar, a systems support technician at CLS, describes his position as a “bridge” between our IT team and other staff. A big part of his job is gathering technical requirements from scientific staff, verifying compatibility across the operating systems needed, then configuring and deploying the high-performance computers/servers that connect to the synchrotron. Mountains of data are collected at our beamlines, and much of the analysis of all that data is done using the servers Athul supports. He also works closely with our systems analyst to support the facility’s two datacentres.

Athul enjoys the variety in his work. Because CLS has a mix of established and new systems, he has to keep his skills sharp across both. “I’ve worked with existing systems and continue building skills in new technologies while supporting ongoing modernization of our environment.” He also appreciates being part of a what he considers a “wonderful” team. “They are great to work with.”

Athul was born and raised in Kerala, a state in southwest India that’s on the tropical Malabar Coast. His parents and a sister still live there. After completing a masters in computer applications in India, he moved to Canada just over five years ago. After furthering his training with a post-graduate diploma in network infrastructure and administration from Conestoga College in Kitchener ON, Athul went to work for a company called OpenText, as a Linux email encryption and archiving specialist.

Outside of work, Athul likes to stay healthy and fit. He’s a regular at Planet Fitness. And he enjoys hitting the highway for road trips. His first car in Canada had more than 200,000 kms on the odometer when he sold it. Athul hasn’t decided yet where he’ll point his new whip – a VW Golf GTI – this summer. He says he’d love to see more of the Rockies.

is a little known but essential mineral that helps power modern technologies like fiber optic internet cables, solar panels, and electronics. Demand for germanium is growing fast, but it’s usually only recovered as a by product of zinc mining—making supply a challenge.

Juan David Bello Rodriguez (U of T), Dan Gregory (U of T), and Lee Groat (UBC) used the CLS to study drill-core samples from the Prairie Creek zinc lead-silver deposit in the Northwest Territories. Using intense X rays, the researchers analyzed the samples across the macro to nano scales (which is smaller than a red blood cell) to determine the mineralogy of germanium and how it is held in the rock.

By understanding how germanium forms and where it’s concentrated, this project aims to improve and extraction techniques. The results could strengthen Canada’s supply of the critical mineral and support technologies needed for a cleaner, energy future.

This research is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Norzinc.

Images: Working with drill core samples at the Prairie Creek deposit.

University of Toronto Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, UBC Science

Linda Vogt, an associate at CLS’ SGM beamline, helps researchers turn scientific questions into discoveries.

She works alongside users to help them plan experiments, prepare samples, collect high-quality data with the , and interpret the results.

One of the things Linda loves most about her job is the variety of projects that come through the beamline. Researchers use it to study everything from soil samples and butterfly wings to advanced battery materials and liquid-mineral interactions.

"Every project is different," says Linda. "One day you're learning about how drought affects soil chemistry, and the next you're looking at how the chemistry inside a battery changes as it operates."

The beamline allows scientists to examine elements such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen at a very small scale, helping them understand the chemistry behind natural and engineered materials. “There aren’t a lot of beamlines around the world that can do that for those elements,” she explains.

"I really enjoy meeting the researchers," she says. "Everyone is passionate about their field, and it's exciting to learn about the questions they're trying to answer. You never know when a conversation might spark a new collaboration."

Linda's connection to the CLS began long before she joined the team. Raised by “two science geeks,” she watched the facility evolve starting from when it was built. “I remember thinking this is a really interesting place to be with cool science happening here, and I might want to work here one day."

When she's not at the beamline, Linda enjoys baking unusual treats like matcha-flavoured shortbread and exploring Saskatchewan's provincial parks through camping trips.

PhD student David Lewis is working with Dr. Joyce McBeth from the University of Regina and Linda Campbell at SMU Science to study the environmental impacts of historical in Nova Scotia and evaluate remediation strategies for mercury- and arsenic-contaminated wetlands.

Nova Scotia is home to 64 historic gold mining districts and more than 300 documented , many located near freshwater wetlands. The research team is examining how mercury and arsenic move through these environments and whether remediation methods, including adding iron-based materials and thin protective caps to wetlands, can help keep these contaminants locked in place.

Their work aims to reduce the risk these pose to wildlife, ecosystems, and nearby communities. The findings will help improve the management of contaminated mining sites in Nova Scotia and could support wetland remediation efforts on other regions across Canada that face similar challenges from historical gold mining.

This research is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and supported by industry partners St. Barbara Limited and Strum Consulting.

Imge1: Tyler Austin, Dr. Joyce McBeth, Valentina Lopez Redondo, David Lewis, Alex Beauchesne at the CLS.
Image2: Dr. Linda Campbell, David Lewis, Dr. Emily Chapman, Logan Phillips, Lauren MacDonald, Heidi Gavel.
Image 3: David Lewis at the Bio-XAS beamline.

✈️ Iron and nickel are used in everything from aircraft and electronics to energy technologies, but scientists still have much to learn about how these metals behave when mixed at the nanoscale.

Researchers with Western University are studying tiny iron-nickel alloys created through an advanced process called ball milling, which produces materials with unique properties that don't normally occur in nature.

Using synchrotron X-rays at the CLS, the team can watch these as they are heated to 800 °C, tracking how their structure changes in real time. This will help reveal what makes these materials stable, how they transform under heat, and how their atomic structure influences performance.

The findings could help to design novel materials with controlled functionality for applications in , manufacturing, energy, and catalysis.

Team members include postdoctoral fellow Jiabin Xu and Prof. T.K. Sham with the Faculty of Science - Western University.

This study is funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

are valued for the high-quality oil they produce, which can be used to produce nutritional supplements and to improve crop yields. However, each seed has a thick outer shell, that affects how easily the oil can be extracted and the quality of the seed. Studying this structure is important—but current methods are slow, require a lot of work, and often involve cutting the seeds open, which destroys them.

A research team led by Dr. Martin Reaney, Professor at University of Saskatchewan, along with postdocs Dr. Runrong Yin from USask Engineering, is testing a new approach to studying borage seed. They are using powerful synchrotron X-ray imaging to look inside the seeds without damaging them. Although borage is the initial model system, this method is expected to be applicable to a wide range of crops, including canola, flax, h**p, and mustard.

The team hopes to create a rapid, non-destructive way to evaluate seed structure. Their work could improve oil production, reduce waste, and support more efficient and sustainable processing.

Image 1: Dr. Runrong Yin holding borage seeds samples.
Image 2: Borage seeds.

Chelsea-Lea likes that no two days at the Canadian Light Source feel the same. As an accelerator physicist in the instrumentation group, she works on systems that track and measure the electron beam across the machine, including the LINAC, low-energy beam transport, booster ring, and storage ring.

For her, the best part is simple. “Every day it’s new problems,” she says. “There’s always something different to figure out.” Even people who have been at CLS for decades still run into things they have never seen before, which keeps the work interesting and never repetitive.

Outside of work, Chelsea-Lea stays just as busy. She has completed more than 500 kickboxing classes and spends her time on creative hobbies. She enjoys calligraphy and ink, with a collection of fountain pens and dip pens. What started as thank-you cards after her degree turned into making handmade cards for friends and family.

Lately, she has been trying more hands-on projects, from sewing a sleeve for her e-reader to painting with ink. She jokes that she has too many hobbies to choose from. “I’ll sit there and think, do I want to game, read, or draw something?” she says. But having a lot of options is not a bad problem. It just means there is always something new to try, whether she is at work or at home.

Researchers from the College of Arts and Science - University of Saskatchewan and the Uni Bayreuth are studying communities of bacteria, called , that naturally grow in mining-affected environments and influence water quality. Working with samples collected from a mine in Germany, PhD candidate Ernesto Prieto, Dr. Stephen Urquhart, and Dr. Martin Obst are investigating how these biofilms interact with iron inside a tube-like structure, called a sheath, where they live.

The researchers took a new approach to spectro-tomography by using a computational imaging method called . This lenseless imaging technique enables the creation of detailed 3D images that reveal the materials present inside the sheath and their precise locations. As a result, researchers can observe biological processes that were previously too small to study in detail.

The research is important because these biofilms produce iron-rich minerals that can naturally trap toxic heavy metals released by mine drainage, helping to improve . However, under certain conditions, those metals can be released back into the environment. By gaining a better understanding of how these biofilms function and what makes them stable, the researchers hope to improve our ability to predict environmental risks, protect water resources, and know where we need to worry about potential water contamination.

This research was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada