While not part of Unicamp, the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) is a research institution focused on physics, structural biology and nanotechnology that maintains close ties with the university and is operated as part of the National Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM). The laboratory was designed in 1983 and began operating in 1997, located next to the main campus. The LNLS has Latin America's only particle accelerator, a synchrotron, used as a synchrotron light source designed and built in Brazil for various physical, chemical, geological, and biological studies.