Page 110 - ILL Annual Report 2019

SCIENTIFIC SUPPORT LABORATORIES
PARTNERSHIP FOR SOFT CONDENSED MATTER
The Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter (PSCM) is a joint initiative established by the ILL and the ESRF on the EPN Campus.
The PSCM’s main mission is to provide support services to
ILL and ESRF scientists tackling contemporary challenges
in soft matter research (nanomaterials, environmental and energy sciences, biotechnology and related fields). The PSCM provides users with access to 13 laboratories and
25 technical facilities, together with the necessary sample preparation equipment. This will include, as of January 2020, new equipment such as a micro-calorimeter and a spin-coater.
It is also the Partnership’s mission to strengthen the soft matter research community by establishing long-term collaborations to develop specialised instrumentation and sample environment facilities. Six new partnership projects will start in 2020, competitively selected through a call for proposals.
The PSCM is located, along with the Soft Matter Science and Support group, on the 2nd floor of the EPN Campus Science Building. Neutron users wishing to use the PSCM laboratories and equipment in conjunction with their neutron measurements should indicate this when submitting their request for beamtime.
Further details can be found at http://www.epn-campus.eu/pscm/.
PARTNERSHIP FOR STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
The Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB) operates a powerful set of technology platforms provided and managed by the partner institutes (ILL, ESRF, EMBL, IBS). These provide advanced capabilities to complement the neutron-scattering facilities available to ILL users: synchrotron X-rays, electron microscopy, high-field nuclear magnetic resonance, high-throughput methods (e.g. soluble expression and crystallisation), and a range of biophysical techniques such as isothermal calorimetry and surface plasmon resonance. The PSB also includes the Deuteration Laboratory (see below), operated as a user platform within the ILL's Life Sciences Group, and the joint SANS/SAXS platform.
There are strong links and collaboration between
the ILL and ESRF life sciences/structural biology and industry groups. The aim of the PSB is to enhance the interdisciplinary capabilities of each of the facilities located on the site and to widen the scientific scope of the external user communities. The Carl-Ivar Brändén building acts as home to the PSB and its partner organisations.
Check the website for more information: http://www.psb-grenoble.eu/.
THE LIFE SCIENCES GROUP AND ITS DEUTERATION LABORATORY
The Deuteration Laboratory (D-Lab) is located and
operated as a PSB platform within the ILL's Life Sciences Group. Its user programme uses in vivo recombinant expression approaches to provide deuterated analogues of proteins, nucleic acids and lipids for the study of structure (crystallography, SANS, fibre diffraction, reflection) and dynamics using neutron scattering. The D-Lab is therefore of central importance to all the ILL instrument groups involved
ANNUAL REPORT 2019