The building and testing of a machine that can create super X-rays capable of exposing the complicated structures of chemical compounds and proteins has been completed at Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Pudong New Area.

The building and testing of a machine that can create super X-rays capable of exposing the complicated structures of chemical compounds and proteins has been completed at Shanghai Zhangjiang High-tech Park in Pudong New Area.

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility is expected to significantly boost China's capability and competitiveness in scientific research, especially in life sciences, officials from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the facility's key developer, were quoted as saying by Thursday's Shanghai Daily.

The 1.2 billion yuan (176 million U.S. dollars) particle accelerator, China's biggest light facility, will also help in the study of viruses and new drugs and the development of technology.

Next month the synchrotron will be opened to universities, scientific institutes and companies for approved research.

The trial operation of the facility in about 60 projects since last month has already yielded results.

"We have found seven new structures including one enzyme which can break down an environmental toxicant," said He Jianhua, head of the institute's synchrotron radiation experiment division.

The institute is cooperating with the Shanghai Institute of Material Medica on researching treatment of bird flu and is expected to work with Sinopec on petroleum catalyzers.

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