News and highlights

Enhancing the oxidative stability of squalene

The National Deuteration Facility has demonstrated the potential of deuteration for stabilisation of industrially relevant materials. An important proof of concept study showcases how the substitution of hydrogen atoms with the stable isotope deuterium can stabilise key cosmetic and medicinal product components.

Voucher scheme for accelerating biomedical research

To encourage access to a diverse range of NCRIS supported Australian translational medical research capabilities, Therapeutic Innovation Australia (TIA) has developed the Pipeline Accelerator, a competitive voucher-style scheme that can subsidise the cost of access to a full range of advanced capabilities. In the Pipeline Accelerator 2024-2025 Round 1, TIA is partnering with Phenomics Australia and ANSTO’s National Deuteration Facility (NDF) to expand the list of translation expertise necessary for the discovery and translation of medical research.

DGet! An open source deuteration calculator for mass spectrometry data

Alexander Angeloski from the National Deuteration Facility and Thomas Lockwood from the University of Technology Sydney have developed a new software tool to enable the routine determination of deuterium content in deuterated molecules using mass spectrometry data.

DGet! is the first readily available application to determine the deuterium content of small molecules using mass spectra. DGet! is freely available at https://dget.app.

2024 NDF Product Catalogue released

The 2024 NDF Product Catalogue has been released and is available to download.

Major study identifies a potential drug target for lowering cholesterol

ANSTO has contributed to a major study identifying a potential drug target for lowering blood cholesterol that has been published in the prestigious journal Science.

The international study was enabled by two of Australia’s national research infrastructure facilities, the National Deuteration Facility and Microscopy Australia, both funded by NCRIS.

Brothers produce excellent scientific results with improvements to silicon

In a rare collaboration, two scientists, who are brothers working in unrelated disciplines, combined complementary expertise to tackle a chemical problem relating to the use of silicon in electronic devices.

Leader of the National Deuteration Facility, Dr Tamim Darwish, suggested to his brother, Dr Nadim Darwish, a Senior Lecturer with expertise in molecular electronics at Curtin University, that deuterating silicon might improve its properties.

This facility at ANSTO is a world leader in deuteration for research applications, and they specialise in providing bespoke deuterated molecules and labelling techniques.

ANSTO welcomes federal funding announcement to support research infrastructure and expertise

ANSTO’s National Deuteration Facility (NDF) is excited to announce it has been granted $2.8 million in National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) 2023 phase 2 funding from the Australian Government for expansion of existing capabilities and development of new capabilities.

Successful ARC Discovery Project 2024

NDF researcher Dr Anthony Duff is a partner investigator on a recently awarded 2024 ARC Discovery Project grant valued at $624,710 entitled "The geometry of genome access: lessons from HIV".

Deuterated squalene and sterols from modified yeast

The National Deuteration Facility at ANSTO continues to support biomedical research on COVID-19 by providing bespoke deuterated lipids for studies of the structure of the virus and its complex molecular interactions.

NDF staff co-author book chapter on deuteration for biological small angle neutron scattering

Staff from the National Deuteration Facility have co-authored a book chapter featured in “Methods in Enzymology; Small Angle Scattering Part A: Methods for Structural Investigation”.