Let there be light: synchrotron offers opportunity in business and industry.

This fall, one of the most brilliant sources of light ever built in Canada will offer business and industry a powerful new tool for research, regulatory compliance and product development.

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After five years of construction, the University of Saskatchewan-owned Canadian Light Source is set to serve academic, government and industrial researchers with a strong commercial mandate. Canada's synchrotron is one of only a few such facilities in the world with the long-term goal of devoting up to 25 per cent of its capacity to commercial and industrial research--more than double the level at most other synchrotrons.

"One of our priorities is to ensure that Canadian companies are aware of what this machine can do for business," says Bill Thomlinson, executive director of Canadian Light Source Inc. (CLSI), the corporation created to run the $173.5-million national facility.

"There are applications at every step of the innovation pipeline, right from discovery research through to high volume analysis to help companies meet their regulatory obligations."

Some Saskatchewan companies are already exploring synchrotron analytical techniques and developing in-house expertise to take advantage of the synchrotron's unique capabilities. For example, uranium mining companies Cameco and Cogema Resources are using the technology to prove arsenic in their tailings treatment streams is being dealt with properly.

"The requirements of our tailings preparation process are driven by satisfactory long-term performance," says John Rowson, Cogema's director of McLean Regulatory Affairs. "I'm talking about thousands of years in the future. There was really no other technique available in the world that would determine the structure of the arsenic precipitates."

For Brett Moldovan, senior metallurgist with Cameco's Key Lake mine, the potential for synchrotron analysis of arsenic mine wastes began with an invitation to participate in a collaborative project with the U of S and CLSI in Saskatoon. It was 1999 and the synchrotron project had just been launched.

Moldovan worked with CLSI staff scientist De-Tong Jiang and U of S geology professor Jim Hendry. Using the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron in Chicago, they developed analytical techniques which offer great advantages over existing methods.

"It's orders of magnitude more sensitive than conventional techniques," Moldovan says.

Rob Slinger is business development officer for CLSI. While the synchrotron has been described as the "Swiss Army knife" of research for its versatility, he says commercial applications can be broken into four general industry sectors: pharmaceuticals, environmental science, material sciences and life sciences.

Environmental sciences include the mine tailings work and a host of other applications, including tracking contamination in groundwater from livestock operations or mercury in fish sold for human consumption.

In materials science, synchrotrons are used to shed light on anti-wear additives in motor oil, advanced paints and coatings, processing and quality characteristics of pulp and paper, and improved polymers for use in everything from car bumpers to super absorbent diapers.

In agriculture and food processing, synchrotron light is identifying where oil, protein and starch are concentrated in plant seeds, and how plants react to heat and frost. This knowledge will help plant breeders develop improved crops, and offer an alternative to the "kernel visual distinguishability" (KVD) standard now used to judge crop quality.

"What we do now is visually inspect a sample to judge quality," says Colleen Christensen, CLSI life sciences industrial liaison scientist. "We are working on techniques that could allow at least some of the quality traits to be quickly identified on a chemical basis."

This work will also help food and feed processors maximize profits. For example, knowing the precise thickness of various layers within the seed would allow them to keep more of the high-value part of the grain.

Several beamlines at the synchrotron will specialize in medical and pharmaceutical applications.

One line is devoted to finding the shapes of proteins complexes--extremely complicated molecules involved in just about every life function, from transporting oxygen in the blood, to allowing viruses to hijack our cellular machinery and make us sick.

By characterizing the shape and function of these biological molecules, protein crystallographers can see how they fit together and design other molecules to block their action, for example, to keep a virus from reproducing.

"You have to run an incredible number of proteins and characterize them to find the promising ones," says CLSI industrial liaison scientist Tom Kotzer. "It's almost an industrial process of synthesizing these proteins and characterizing them with protein crystallography."

According to Slinger, the community in which the synchrotron is built is at least as important as the machine itself. Located on the campus of a major research university, CLSI benefits from close working relationships with the U of S College of Medicine, the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, VIDO and the new Saskatchewan Structural Sciences Centre. Major government research institutions including the NRC Plant Biotechnology Institute, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the SRC are located on campus and at nearby Innovation Place, one of North America's most successful research parks.

Three industrial liaison scientists, as well as Slinger's own office help business and industry understand and harness the value-adding power of the synchrotron.

"Academic clients and commercial clients are very different in terms of what they need from us," Slinger says. "Leading researchers are happy as long as they find and publish new science. Commercial clients are often looking for a specific answer related to their bottom line. We work with them to find out what they're after, and what approach will give them the best return on their investment."

Written by Michael Robin

PHOTO BY STUART KASDORF FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN