Neutrons for membrane biophysics

SCHOOL neutrons for membrane biophysics

Membrane biophysics is the study of the physico-chemical environment around the cell and the organelles inside the eukaryote cell, the lipid bilayer. The ability of this structure to provide selective transport properties into and out of the cell underpin its role as the interface between the cell and its environment, but also within the cell, where organelles rely for functioning on the transport properties of their membranes.

The organised school will be an international meeting with contributions from leading neutron scattering and deuteration facilities. Together with contributions by academic researchers there is a great potential impact for neutron scattering over a diverse range of scientific problems. We will focus on the three experimental techniques (neutron reflectivity, neutron lamellar diffraction and small angle neutron scattering) and the structural perspective that these techniquesgive on the arrangements of lipids into bilayers, the solubilisation of small molecules and interactions of larger biomolecules with lipid bilayers. These generic problems have wide relevance including the fields of food science, the plant sciences, biotechnology, structural biology and more general problems involving the physico-chemistry of lipid bilayers. There will be hands on experience in producing good quality samples and the measurement and analysis of data on world class neutron instrumentation. Deuteration is an indispensable adjunct to the structural perspective of neutron scattering which allows the experimentalist to highlight and resolve very specific molecular detail. An important aspect of this workshop is to provide a context for molecular deuteration from experts, well versed in the power, and importantly the limitations of the technique.

Additionally we will give instruction, and provide software for, traditional methods of data analysis, modelling of SANS and reflectivity data, and unit cell reconstructions of diffraction data. We will also examine the possibilities in the use of molecular dynamics simulations for direct comparison with scattering derived models.

Registration starts in the beginning of April.