News

An article recently published in Cell Reports reveals how researchers have for the first time directly visualized the position of protons within key functional elements of an enzyme that plays an important role in the metabolism of many microorganisms. Neutron diffraction measurements at ILL of protein crystals grown under microgravity conditions at the International Space Station (ISS) were key ingredients in this work.

Understanding the interactions of biomolecules such as proteins or drugs with the membrane of cells is important in biomedical research and for the pharmaceutical industry. The sensitivity of neutrons to hydrogen atoms make neutron scattering a unique probe.

The serum protein ApoE is known to bind to LNPs after administration and to be critical for cellular uptake and protein production in the liver. The acquisition of complementary SANS and SAXS data revealed the structural and compositional effects induced by this binding: a rearrangement of both t…

Polymers – macromolecules composed of repeating subunits called monomers – are everywhere. Proteins, DNA, starch and cellulose are all examples of naturally occurring polymers, while synthetic polymer materials – considered one of the most important inventions of modern times – are involved in mos…

Nanoparticles and large molecules are everywhere in advanced materials and pharmaceutical products. From touchscreens to protein drugs, the stabilisation of these particles is central to their ability to perform their required function. For instance, vaccine formulations, which use proteins or nuc…

Medical isotope collection at CERN MEDICIS; ©CERN 2018-2021 Nuclear therapy and molecular imaging, which are widely used in hospitals for promising new medical procedures, can drastically improve outcomes for many medical conditions, making it possible to treat dis…

Moringa seeds November 2019One in three people cannot access clean drinking water ​​​​​​[1]. Moringa seed  extracts have been used of centuries to help purify water in regions where clean water is not available.Researchers have used neutrons and X-rays to identify …

Entanglement. A cross‐section view into a web of interpenetrated polymer chains is shown. Above the glass transition temperature, the molecules are able to diffuse. For long star‐shaped polymers, the mean square displacement is proportional to a power law 1/16 of time. This particular number is a…

Key binding characteristics of a sugar-binding protein associated with heart disease and breast cancer defined for the first time, guiding future drug developmentResearchers pinpoint hydrogen-bonding interactions in the C-terminal carbohydrate recognition domain of galectin-3 (galectin-3C) for the first time using neutron crystallographyThese detailed observations will inform future drug design f…

10.04.2013Research at Birkbeck, University of London uses world-leading neutron sources at ILL and ISIS to demonstrate ozone attacks on lung surface fluidsA research team from Birkbeck and Royal Holloway Colleges at the University of London, and Uppsala University in Sweden, have helped explain ho…

John Womersley, ESS Director General (left) and Helmut Schober, ILL Director (right), signing the ESS-ILL MoU on 20 June 2017, in the presence of Grahame Blair (STFC), Maria Faury (CEA) and Sebastian Schmidt (BMBF). (click to enlarge) Europe leads the world in neu…

From left to right: Fabien Lafont and Victor Buridon, post-docs ILL/BrightnESS, and Anton Khaplanov, ESS Multi-grid detectors, introduced at the ILL in 2010, have shown their great potential to replace Helium-3-based detectors, and as a result, they will equip seve…