News

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.

From drug delivery to the development of responsive materials, self-assembled supramolecular structures have many applications. Understanding their organisation and reaction to external parameters is key. In a new study, researchers explore the effect of high pressures taking full advantage of ILL’s leadership in this domain.

An agreement has just been signed between the ILL and the ESS for ILL to manufacture the detector for the CSPEC instrument at the ESS.

The PSB spotlight on “Neutrons in Biology” took place on 29 June 2024, gathering more than 50 participants from the four institutes of the EPN campus (European Photon and Neutron campus) in Grenoble.

A recently published study uses neutron and X-ray scattering to deepen our understanding of freeze-drying protein stabilisation processes, widely used in biopharmaceutical applications. The results obtained for a protein relevant for pharmaceutical applications are in stark contrast with those previously obtained for lysozyme, widely used as a model protein. This highlights the importance of protein selection in such studies.

ILL researcher Alessandro Tengattini has just been awarded a research chair at the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) to develop a five-year research project exploiting the combined neutrons and X-ray imaging capabilities of the NeXT instrument at the ILL in a series of applications on environment and sustainability studies.

The third and final meeting of the Science Strategy Working Group was held at the ILL on June 17 and 18.

A recently published study uses neutron scattering to shed light on texturisation - the black box for plant-based meat analogues - through in-situ real-time observations of the process. The challenge is increasingly relevant for the food industry as consumer concerns about sustainability, health and animal welfare rise.