News

The latest ‘Spotlight’ meeting of the Partnership in Structural Biology (PSB) brought together researchers from across the EPN campus and beyond for a morning of engaging presentations and discussions dedicated to liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). The ensemble of the contributions highlighted the relevance of LLPS across diverse contexts, in particular in addressing some of humankind’s core challenges related to health, disease and the environment.

High-quality neutron and X-ray data acquired using red blood cells allowed researchers to establish a universal theoretical description of cell membranes.

Thanks to a recent upgrade of ILL’s neutron reflectometer D17, molecular motions can be tracked with unprecedented precision

ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE (ITM) and the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), today announced an extension of their collaboration for medical radioisotope production, originally established in 2009.

ILL's instruments play a crucial role in disentangling complex protein crystallisation pathways.

A team of researchers at the ILL investigated how salt alters the shape of lipid vesicles.

Bacteria may soon replace viruses as primary pandemic concern. In our shrinking antibiotic arsenal, polymyxin B stands out as a last-resort drug capable of breaching the bacterial outer membrane – though not without side effects. A study now published brought together expertise from different neutron facilities to examine this process at the molecular scale using neutron scattering on model bacterial membranes. This work was also featured as a cover image for the journal issue.

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are used to treat a large variety of diseases. In order to allow patients to inject these therapeutic molecules autonomously, it is crucial to understand the origin of and to control their viscosity. An international team of researchers used an interdisciplinary approach to understand how molecular interactions and motions influence the viscosity of different mAbs. The study has now been published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The lipid membranes surrounding human cells are known to be asymmetric in terms of their molecular composition. The localisation of cholesterol within these membranes has, however, been difficult to pinpoint until recently. Using neutron scattering and selective deuteration, researchers were able to tackle this challenge and to provide deep insights into the complexity of biological membranes. This knowledge can help design articificial membranes for drug delivery and facilitate the handling of demanding proteins.

How neutrons help us understand the industrial production of therapeutic molecules

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.

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.