Trillions of electrons are injected into a ring 150 feet in circumference, accelerating to an energy of 1.3 trillion volts and emitting radiation strong enough to produce a CT Scan with 1,000 times more resolution than a hospital’s.This hub of scientific research can be found at only eight locations throughout the nation, and one of them is LSU.The University’s synchrotron, a type of particle accelerator, can be found at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, or CAMD. Located off campus on Jefferson Highway, CAMD puts the University on par with other schools with synchrotrons, like Stanford and Cornell universities.”Without CAMD, [LSU] is like a ‘me too’ university,” said Challa Kumar, head of the nanotechnology group at CAMD. “Everyone has a physics department, a materials department and a biology department. But who has a synchrotron? CAMD gives a niche to Louisiana and LSU.”Construction on CAMD began in 1989, and the first data was collected from it in 1992, said Richard Kurtz, interim director of CAMD. The original investment was $25 million, but new equipment for the facility has built the total investment to $175 million, Kurtz said.The synchrotron works by accelerating electrons in a vacuum using large magnets to produce radiation, similar to radio waves.”When you send electrons up and down a radio antenna, that emits radio waves,” Kurtz said. “When electrons turn the corner [in the synchrotron], that’s acceleration. Because they are going so fast, instead of radio waves, you are emitting light.”The light comes from all parts of the spectrum and can be used for research in a number of disciplines including biology, physics and chemistry. One-third of all patents held by the University come from CAMD users, Kurtz said.The research conducted at CAMD seems complicated, but the science leads to practical, real-world applications, said Phillip Sprunger, physics professor. One example is work in nanotechnology that led to the new types of hard drives for computers 12 years ago.”In 12 years, we’ve revolutionized the hard drive industry,” Sprunger said. “Everybody thinks basic science is three or four decades out from being used, but that’s not the case anymore.”Some of that practical research comes in biology. Biologists can focus the synchrotron’s X-ray light and examine specific molecules to determine their structure, which has a number of valuable applications, said Marcia Newcomer, head of the biological sciences department.One such project deals with antibiotics that kill bacteria. After an antibiotic is used for a while, bacteria develop a resistance, rendering the medicine ineffective. But by examining molecular structures at CAMD, biologists can more easily alter the antibiotic to make it useful again.”You can come up with and design novel antibiotics using the information you get from CAMD,” Newcomer said. “It’s a silver bullet kind of thing — make a bullet to kill the molecule, and when you kill it, the bacteria can no longer survive.”Part of Kumar’s work at CAMD deals with cancer treatment, with a specific focus on metastatic cells, which are hard to detect and treat.”Ninety percent of primary tumors are treatable,” Kumar said. “The problem is with metastatic tumors — those that move away from primary tumors and get lodged into different parts of the body.”Current contrast agents are not efficient enough to detect cells smaller than a micrometer, but the new agents being developed by Kumar could detect those tiny cells.”We cannot take synchrotron radiation to a hospital, so it’s not a direct tool in that sense,” Kumar said. “It’s an indirect tool because without it, it will be difficult to develop these contrast agents.”This type of research is plentiful at CAMD. There are 60 principal investigators from the University from 19 different departments, Kurtz said. About 180 University students also use the facility, as well as 61 more principal investigators from other universities.Users apply for beam time, which is typically booked four to six months in advance. The high demand and limited amount of beam time can cause problems, Kurtz said.”In some areas of research, the beam lines are oversubscribed, so we get twice as many requests as we can honor in terms of assigned beam time,” he said.With so many researchers working at CAMD, the facility is a magnet for grant money. CAMD researchers have brought in $19.5 million in the last three months alone, Kurtz said.The facility also gives the University an important advantage in recruiting graduate students, said Chancellor Michael Martin.”Great research programs are run as much by great grad students as by great faculty,” Martin said. “[CAMD] is a grad student magnet that others cannot easily match.”CAMD provides a more personal environment for grad students because there are fewer users than at other synchrotrons, Martin said.The smaller scale of CAMD also makes research more cost efficient. Even though it has its own synchrotron, the Argonne National Laboratory installed a beam line at CAMD for a much lower cost.”It cost them about $100,000 in initial investment, whereas at their own synchrotron, it would cost about $10 million,” Kurtz said.Researchers at CAMD are always keeping an eye on costs, said Vic Suller, accelerator director at CAMD. The facility shut down in August to replace a metal vessel that insulates liquid helium to keep magnets superconducting.”Helium is about the same cost as a good bottle of wine, for the same amount,” Kurtz said.The helium, which costs $2,500 to refill, now only needs to be replaced every 150 days, Suller said. It had to be changed three times a week before the new vessel.University administration and faculty agree CAMD is vital to LSU’s profile as a research university.”CAMD is … one of the few, if not the only, leadership-class research facilities that we have on campus,” said Brooks Keel, vice chancellor for research and economic development. “It provides a very visible opportunity for LSU to take a leadership role in research.”—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]