News

The Big Science Business Forum (BSBF) 2024 was held in Trieste from 1 to 4 October. ILL was represented by its Purchasing and Partnerships and Communication services. Our stand was visited by many suppliers, as well as by R&D teams interested in neutron science.

The 2024 edition of the Journées de la Diffusion Neutronique (JDN2024) was held last week on the island of Porquerolles. 86 scientists attended the conference - a record number - including more than 20 scientists representing the ILL and its CRG instruments.

The InnovaXN EU-funded project has ended on September 30, 2024. Let us reflect on the outcomes of this first-of-a-kind EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training programme undertaken by the ILL and the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility), bringing together the expertise of large-scale research infrastructures with the R&D needs of European industry.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers has established a set of conditions under which sustainable fatty acid complexes can efficiently fight against dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The results are encouraging and inspire further research on the development of fatty acid-based antibiotics. They further demonstrate the value of neutron scattering in this kind of pharmaceutical research.

An international research team has used neutrons to study the nanometer-scale dynamics of water inside concrete. This is not only key to concrete strength, but also for the development of green concrete and environment-related applications.

ILL research scientist Leonardo Chiappisi has been awarded the prestigious Wolfram-Prandl Prize 2024 for young scientists for his outstanding research results on polymer-based soft matter under high-pressure conditions.

Close to 20 undergraduate students from ILL and ESRF associate and member countries are at the EPN campus to discover neutron and x-rays techniques and science, from 2 to 28 September.

It is with deep sadness that we announce the tragic and untimely passing of our friend and colleague Björn Fåk, who died in a motorcycle accident on 25 July 2024 at the age of 65. A distinguished physicist, Björn was renowned for his profound knowledge in neutron scattering, which he applied to many different areas of condensed matter physics, in particular studying quantum magnetism and many-body quantum systems.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are natural antibiotics which are very effective against resistant bacteria. Despite their interesting properties, AMPs remain difficult to use. A study just published marks a remarkable step forward in understanding how AMPs work. Taking full advantage of neutron and X-ray scattering, researchers obtained results that are both important and surprising.

HIV/AIDS remains a major global health challenge, with an estimated 39 million people living with the disease and 1.5 million new infections each year. Though antiretroviral therapy provides effective treatment and prevention, limitations arise due to inadequate adherence to the required lifelong daily drug regimen. There is thus significant interest in the development of long-acting drug delivery systems that enable consistent and sustained drug release for extended periods. Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have recently published proof-of-concept of a long-acting drug delivery platform based on a novel peptoid-peptide material. The contribution to this work by the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) demonstrates, once again, the facility’s dedication to the provision of neutrons for society.

The SHARPER instrument at the ILL came online during the second 2024 reactor cycle, which run for 16 May to 9 June. SHARPER is a time-focusing time-of-flight spectrometer designed for quasi-elastic and inelastic scattering built and operated at the ILL by the Léon Brillouin Laboratory (Saclay, France) as a CRG (Collaborating Research Group) instrument.

The replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy is a key requirement to achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. Energy storage systems are a crucial technology for this global energy transition due to the intermittent nature of renewables. A recent publication – describing a biomimetic energy storage system inspired by the structure of naturally-occurring methane hydrate – highlights the unique contribution of neutrons to help tackle this societal challenge and advance towards a sustainable future.