For Northwestern researchers operating sensitive instruments, a sudden vibration from nearby construction of the Kellogg Education Center could mean lost time and compromised data collection.

The building — previously the Allen Center — is scheduled for completion in Fall 2027 and will become home to the Executive MBA and Executive Education programs.

Until then, the construction remains disruptive for scientists in various natural science research buildings nearby, said molecular biosciences, and physics and astronomy Prof. John Marko. Although he receives construction schedules from the University that include noise estimates, he said the demolition and pounding of metal walls is particularly frustrating.

Marko’s office on the fourth floor of Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion hovers right above the construction site. His research examines how various molecules and cells physically interact and exert forces on each other.

Marko said the construction causes significant vibrations that disrupt precise measurements.

“We do a lot of very sensitive force measurements of forces exerted by molecules and by cells,” Marko said. “Our molecular forces are in the piconewton range, and our cellular forces are in the nanonewton range. Both those types of instruments are very sensitive to vibrations.”

To study how proteins interact with DNA, magnetic tweezers apply tiny forces to a DNA molecule, and the vibrational disturbances can introduce inaccuracies in data. This data is measured in the piconewton range, which is a force roughly a trillion times smaller than the weight of an apple.

Ronald Biggs, a postdoctoral researcher in Marko’s lab, studies chromosomes by placing cells grown in a dish into a microscope and measuring forces. The experiments Marko’s lab conducts require delicate needles and pipettes, which shake due to vibrations. During heavy construction, Biggs said he sometimes stops experiments entirely.

“I tried doing calibrations one day while the construction was going on and the vibrations were too much,” Biggs said.

Marko said his lab has developed some workarounds to the construction. The lab conducts sensitive experiments after construction concludes around 4 p.m., focusing on experiment preparation during heavy vibration periods. Sometimes, lab members temporarily relocate within the building during noisy periods.

Even from the fourth floor of Cook Hall, not adjacent to the construction site, molecular biosciences Prof. Heather Pinkett said she must proactively adapt to the vibrations.

Her research as a structural biologist focuses on the study of proteins at an atomic level, specifically in how transporters — which shuttle molecules across a cell membrane — change shape during their activity.

This research supports areas like improved drug development and chemotherapy treatments, Pinkett said.

An Advanced Photon Source looks at an individual “snapshot” of a protein’s state. Though the APS instrument is off-campus, the proteins must first be crystallized — akin to making sugar rock candy — on campus prior to using the machinery. Vibrations deeply impact the crystallization process, she said, making the replication of results across experiments challenging.

“I may come in and I may see crystals, and seeing crystals — if there’s a vibration — could mean that the vibration helped to get crystals. But you can’t repeat the vibration,” Pinkett said.

Crystallization can take anywhere from a few minutes to six to 12 months, Pinkett said. To mitigate the effects of the construction long-term, her lab tracks vibrations and props the samples on a platform to absorb some vibration.

Pinkett’s lab uses cryogenic electron microscopy to capture the pathway of a protein’s transformation. Pinkett said vibrations require a recalibration of the entire instrument to ensure a clear capture.

Like Marko, researchers in Pinkett’s lab have adjusted their schedules, starting cryo-EM screening after construction ends around 4 p.m. and staying in the lab until midnight sometimes, Pinkett said. Since facility staff is not available after hours, support for calibration shifted to virtual communication.

“It slows you down substantially. … With construction, you would have to stop the collection. It kind of breaks up what you can do, and the demand for the instrument is really high,” Pinkett said. “Sometimes what we’re signing up for is not a bunch of days, but we’re signing up for hour-long slots.”

Northwestern is coincidentally installing a second cryo-EM instrument — planned before the construction began — which will be available mid-summer. Pinkett said the new device will help them “ramp up” experiments.

In the meantime, researchers like Marko and Pinkett are finding solutions to continue their research despite the vibrational impacts of construction.

“The impact of it has just been a game changer,” Pinkett said.

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