About Neutrons in Biology

The uniqueness of the type of information that can be provided by neutron scattering techniques has given neutrons a small but important role in understanding biological molecules and systems. Recently a number of factors have resulted in a great increase in the use of neutrons in biology and have completely changed the prospects for this field world-wide. These factors include improvements in instrumentation and neutron sources, sample preparation and data collection methods, and computational tools. This international conference will highlight the most current advances achieved in the field of neutron scattering analysis of biological systems. It will also examine the prospects for using neutrons to address some of the greatest scientific challenges we face in the 21st century including renewable energy, the environment, and human health.

In addition to scientific sessions on protein crystallography, small angle scattering, reflectometry, inelastic scattering, fiber diffraction, instrumentation, and deuteration and crystallization the conference will include a workshop on "Computational Tools for Crystallography" (organized by Pavel Afonine from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. and Marat Mustyakimov from Los Alamos National Lab.), and a special focus session on “Neutrons for renewable energy and the environment” (organized by Mike Kent from Sandia National Lab.).

This conference is sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the Department of Energy and the Materials Research Society.