Abstract
Neutron crystallography has had an important, but relatively small role in structural biology over the years. In this review of recently determined neutron structures, a theme emerges of a field currently expanding beyond its traditional boundaries, to address larger and more complex problems, with smaller samples and shorter data collection times, and employing more sophisticated structure determination and refinement methods. The origin of this transformation can be found in a number of advances including first, the development of neutron image-plates and quasi-Laue methods at nuclear reactor neutron sources and the development of time-of-flight Laue methods and electronic detectors at spallation neutron sources; second, new facilities and methods for sample perdeuteration and crystallization; third, new approaches and computational tools for structure determination.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 593-600 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Current Opinion in Structural Biology |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2008 |
Funding
PL was supported by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Science of the National Institutes of Health (1R01GM071939-01), LANL LDRD (20070131ER and 20080001DR), and by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the Department of Energy. ADP was supported by the Human Frontiers Science Program, by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), by the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, and the Hôpital Universitaire de Strasbourg (H.U.S). NN was supported partly by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the MEXT of Japan. NN and ADP were supported by the Human Frontiers Science Program (RGP0021/2006-C). The construction of the LADI-III diffractometer was financed by a grant from the European Commission (Grant No. 011995 CISB (RICN)).