European Neutron-Muon Portal

International school for Scattering for Biologists

23 - 26 October, Paul Scherrer Institut - Villigen PSI, Switzerland

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Since the discovery of x-rays by C.W. Roentgen in the late 19th century scattering of x-rays on biological systems and materials has had a tremendous impact on our understanding of biological tissue and materials on any length scale down to atomic resolution. X-ray imaging has allowed the visualization of bones and organs to detect malfunction and disease. X-ray diffraction revealed the structure of the DNA strand and induced its biological function as encoding the genetic information in the nucleus. The 3D structure of proteins can be determined and the aggregation of protein complexes visualized.

At the beginning of the 21st century the vision of picosecond time-resolved in-situ structure determination of biological systems by free electron lasers is envisaged within the next decade. With the development of neutron scattering within the last half century neutrons have been developed as a complementary structural probe for the investigation of biological systems. In particular contrast variation in bio-molecules by the strong discrimination of neutrons between hydrogen and deuterium allow distinct structure determination of hydrogen, hydrogen bonds and water in proteins and enzymes, difficult to achieve with x-rays. Selective deuteration of proteins allows the localization of protein sub-units in protein complexes by small angle neutron scattering. Inelastic neutron scattering can be employed to study various kinds of dynamics in bio-molecules ranging from collective motions in lipid membranes to the motions of water in hydrated proteins.

Usually young scientist and students in structural biology or biophysics suffer from the limited access to use x-ray and neutron scattering methods in their work, as most of these techniques rely on instruments at large scale facilities of synchrotrons, reactor or spallation neutron sources. Often to exploit the unique or complementary scattering techniques by x-rays and/or neutrons in their research is hampered by a lack of knowledge about the available techniques and instrumentation and how to handle experiments on-side. This limitation in efficient use of available modern physical experimental techniques in biology and biophysics research can only be overcome by dedicated information and instruction on x-ray and neutron techniques and their instrumentation at large scale facilities.

An international school on “Scattering for Biologists” is planned to be held at PSI, Switzerland, which hosts the neutron source SINQ and the synchrotron source SLS, to teach interested young researchers and students in x-ray and neutron scattering methods. The school will consist of lectures by leading scientists in the different techniques of x-ray and neutron scattering appropriate in structural biology and biophysics. The lectures will be accompanied by hands on experiments at x-ray and neutron instrument stations of SINQ and SLS.
Lectures and experiments will be given on:
- introduction to scattering techniques in general
- basics of single crystal diffraction (protein crystallography)
- small angle scattering, anomalous SAXS
- light scattering (DLS and/or ellipsometry)
- reflectometry
- inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering (dynamics of proteins, membranes)
- x-ray resonance spectroscopy hand on experiments:
- x-ray protein crystallography
- small angle x-ray/neutron scattering
- x-ray/neutron reflectometry
- DLS - inelastic neutron spectroscopy

Program (tentative)

Workshop fee: 300 EUR covering on-side accommodation at PSI guest house and
lunch and dinner throughout the event.

Number of participants
24 participants (young researchers): The school will be limited to a maximum of 24 attendees to allow individual training of young researchers and students during the experimental sections.
17 invited speakers
6 instrument scientist to guide experiments

Organized by the MCT network BIOCONTROL, supported by NMI3
Local organizers:
Regine Willumeit, GKSS, Geesthacht, Germany
Thomas Gutberlet, LNS, PSI, Villigen, Switzerland

Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) - Mechanical Technician

Tuesday, Oct. 23. Wednesday, Oct. 24. Thursday, Oct. 25. Friday, Oct. 26. Saturday, Oct. 27.
09.00 Introduction to Scattering Techniques
Karl Lohner, OEAW Ellipsometry
Tommy Nylander, U LUND Praktika Praktika BIOCONTROL Complementary Skills Workshop “Proposals and Reporting”
11:00 Coffee Break Coffee Break
11:30 t.b.a.
X-ray and neutron reflectometry
Gerald Brezesinski, MPI
(t.b.c.) Lunch Lunch

12:30 Lunch Lunch Praktika Praktika Lunch
13:30 Small angle scattering, anomalous SAXS
Regine Willumeit, GKSS Inelastic neutron scattering (dynamics of proteins, membranes)
Joe Zacchai, ILL IBS

14:30 Light scattering (DLS)
Stefan Egelhaff, U Duesseldorf Inelastic x-ray scattering
Tim Salditt, U Goettingen (t.b.c.)

15:30 Coffee break Coffee Break Coffee break Coffee Break
16:00 SANS analysis
Manfred Roessle, EMBL t.b.a.
Praktika Praktika

17:00 Scattering in structural biology
Kurt Ballmer-Hofer,
PSI BIO Self-Assembly of soft nanostructures
Joachim Raedler, LMU

18:00 Dinner Dinner Dinner Dinner
19:30 t.b.a.
Joachim Seelig, Biozentrum Basel
t.b.a.
Georg Bueldt, FZJ
(t.b.c.)
t.b.a.
Tony Watts, Oxford
(t.b.c.)

Praktika:
1. X-ray protein crystallography, Clemens Schulze-Briese, PSI SLS
2. X-ray diffraction, Franz Pfeifer, PSI SLS
3. Small angle neutron scattering, Thomas Geue, PSI LNS
4. Neutron reflectometry, Thomas Gutberlet, PSI LNS
5. DLS, Ronnie Vavrin, PSI LNS
6. Quasielastic neutron spectroscopy, Thierry Straessle, PSI LNS

Last modified on 25/05/2007