,Meeti 9 Re orts

Discussing Biomolecular Dynamics and Protein-Water Interactions

R cccnlly, an internaljonal work­

shop on Biomolecular Dyn,unic:" and Protci ll-\!Jater Inlcractions was hcld on September 24 lo 26. 2008 in fcld;:¡fjng near Munich. Gnmany, joinlly Olll,alllZed by Ihe Physics Oepan­ment of Tcchnieal Univemity Munich, lhe rorsehungs-Neulronenquelle Hcinz Meier-LcibnÍlz. (FRM 1J) and the

Jü!ich Centre for Nelllron Scien\:c. Focus 01' the workshop WJS lhe dis\;us­sien en lhe m8chanism of lhe protein dynamlcallransilion. protein hydration and prolein dynamics stmJicd by neu­tron sealtcring and othcr mctl1ods. More than ()O scienlisls from Europe. USA. Austrnlia and Japan aUcndcd the workshop lJl Ihe beauli fui SUlTound­ings 01' the JnWent Rdl\cation Cenlcr close to L;)ke Starnberg in southl.:rn l3avaria.

Mam taJks were given by leadillg

ex.perts in the tield, sueh as Jan Swenson (Chalmers Unrversily) and Berlil llatlc (Lund Univer~ity). who dlscussed the role soJvenls have on proteul dynmnic~. Michacl Vogcl (TU Darmstadl) dcsclibcd invcstigations on

Ihe frag:ilc-to-strong transition 01' prole In hydralion water. /VIikio Kataoka (Nara InstitUlc) reviewed the elfee! of hydnJ­tion on prolelll dynamics. Joc Zaccai (ILL) gave an enlhllsiastlc description 01' the biologieaJ relevance 01' prokin dYruJlllics. while Alexe¡ SokoJov (1Jnivcrsity of A1<ron) eompared dynam­ies of prolcíns Hnd nllc!eie acids. MOllnir

Tarek (CNRS Naney) and Gcrald Kncllcr (Unive~ily 01' Orleans) gay¡,; state-of-Ihe-art descriplion~ o f lhe potcn­tlal 01' moJeeular-dymunies ~illlllJations

Oll prolein dynamics. Thc~c talks were comp!emented by anotbcr twenty oral presentatiolls and about twenly poster

prescnlations hy re.searchers. postdocs and PhO students.

\Ve had Illlense diseu%iOl< bctwec)l the particirant~; cspeclally during an evenmg roster (lnd bcer scssion. A hlghhght was il yisit al' the R0sen;nsd in Lakc Stambcrg al lhe end 01' lhe worhhop. Most participants appreci­aled the open and informal way dis­cussing current compcting dynamic modeb and expl.:rimcntal approaches lO study protein dynamies. The clear

demanu for 010n; sophi:-.licateJ tlcutron ínstr\lmcnt~ lo ~tuJy dynamical I1he­nOI11Clla in protcios and blO)ogical sys­lems \Vas ex presscd. bul aIso lhe import,lllCc 01' compkmenting neutron

data with NM R. dieleclrjc speetros­copy ano powcrful Monte CirIo símu­Ialioll sluuies \Vas sccn as vital. In particular. regarding the lIse ol' ncutron SIJI;:droscopy. the parlieip¡¡nts were delighlcd abOllt lIslng new instruments (1I nder construetion or avallabl e) as Ihe

tímc-of-Oighl spcctromctcr ToITor and the baekSCill1ering inslnnnenl SPI-JERES al FRM 11, lhe new back­seatlering and lime-oJ~nlght spectrom­cters al SNS and the llpgraded inelastic spectrometers at ILL. It makes com­mon sense lo lIse thcst) experlmenlal üptions and combine Ihem with ded­icatcd simulation efforts and CODJ­

pkJlWlllaty NMR ~llldi(,;~ lu gain more insighl inlo protcio ano water dyn:\I11ics un ongoing strong topie in lhe fulure.

TlJot-.-I.'\S GUTllCRLET

JCNS, G(/rching

Mediterranean Sea Welcomes IV Biennial Meeting ofthe Spanish Society on Neutron Techniques

T he Spanish Society on Neutron fcchnigucs (SETN) held ils fourth

bi¡:nnial meeting from Seplember 8 to 10,200:5. at the marvelous Meditcrra­ncan seaside 111 Sanl Feliu de Guíxols (Girana). This lhree-day meeting offercJ lhe opportunily to revicw the topics on which the Spanish ncutron scattcring community ami also cngi­

ncenng dcparlmenls from sorne

Neutron News

hígh-technology eornpanics are Cllr­rcntly worklllg

The meeting, chai red by .10,6 Luis García-\111ñOt Oe the Inslituto de Ciencia de Materiak~ de l3¡¡rcclona (CSIC). was ¡¡uended by alm0st J(Jü seienliSb from di fferent COlln­tries and Illany ncu(ron ccntcrs aJl

ovcr Rurope. mosl of thcm a dynamic young ge)leration of Spanish

researchers ensuring a conlinl.lity or üllr cOJJllnunity.

rhis fourth meeting had nine ses­Si0I18, incl ud iIlg three pi enary preseo­latinns: rctlec10metry <:Ind SAN S in so1't-matter stlldies (by Jd'lrcy PCI1­fold). magnelie slructures dctennina­tlon (by Juan Rodríguez.-Carvajall. ami ¡nstnlmentalíon concepls rOl' long­

pulse sp;)llatlon SOllrccs (by Fef(:llC

Volume 20 • Number 2 • 2009

etin R p -.rts

Juan Lrrutia, PrcsiJcnl of the Exccutive C()mmillcc ofth(': consorliulll ESS-Bilbao, in a momenl of his vibrant presentation during lhe last day of the meeting.

Mezei). Moreovcr. eíght Spallish sei­

entists ","orking at differeot oculron

sources revicwed the latest develop­

mcnts offned by thcse centers, and

aroulld 20 sc:.:ientific taJks illustrated

lhe SPllllish highlights on a wide vari­

c;ly of aTcas from purely SCHcntific !O

applied studies. In addltloo, forty-Ihree

poslers eovered many areas of seienee

lhal bcnefíl from neutron teehniqucs.

The General Assembly oflhe SETN

took place ¡he second da)' lJ1 a convivial

atrnosphcrc that continued durjng the

confcrcncc dinner some hours later, al a

seaside restaurant with view lo One ofthe

¡nost beautiful bays ofthe Costa Brava.

Thc lasl day was dedicated lo ana­

Iyze and revisit Ule status 01' big upgrade

programs and projects sueh as the TS-2

al ISI5, Ihe Míllennium Program at ILL, ESS, and so on. The expericnces

of technologleal eompanics activcly

working in Ihe field of neutron instru­mentalion were a\so presented. The

complcmentarily of neulrons and

x-rays was stresscd following (he pre­

sentation oC fue eurren1 stalus oY the

Spanish SYl1cl1xotron ALBA lhal is being

built !lear Barcelona. Lasl news Ü"om tNSA and maó, aspects of the new

NMB program were presenled and lively

discussed. The c10sing sessíon presenled

the ncw initiatives O[lhe Spanísh Minis­

lry of Sc.;ience and hmovalion (MICINN)

in Ihe area of ncutrons, al1nouneing tlle

intention lo increasc thc Spanish parliei­

pation al the Institute Lauc Langevin

from 4% lo 6%, maintain me 2.5% of quota al the LX source 1818, and

increase the 8panísh quota up lO 45% for

the wcll-k.nown CRG-DIB alILL. Thís meeting gavc unanimous sup­

port to the Spanish eandidature hosting

!he European $paUation Souree (ESS)

facility in Bilbao. Juan Urrulia, Ihcn

President 01' the Exeeutive Committee

of Ihe eonsortium ESS-Bilbao, SUlll ­

manzed sorne rekvant aspccts: i) lhe

European Stralegy Forum on Rcscareh

Infraslructures (ESfRI) has approvt:d

[he project 1n ils fi rsl revie\v ¡í) the

eommitmenl ol' Regional and CenlrJI

aclrniniSlratíons to boost Ihe project,

iii) the support of a sectorial R&D slralegy on accelerators technology,

iv) fhe design revicw of lhe project, v)

the possíbilily to install bigher energy

power, of great illlportance if a high

magnelie ficJd lab is setling up nex¡ to

the source. Javier Campo, Presiden! of

lhe SETN, declarcd the firm support to

thc ESS-Bilbao projeet.

On behalf oC the organizers, the

SETN would like to express í!s grati­

tudc lo all lbe parti,cipanls and speak­

ers. Special lhanks are due \O the

Spanish Ministl)' of Scicnce 3nd 1nno­

valion, the ESS-Bilbao COllsortium,

the Spanish CSIC aud the Materials

Science Institutc of Barcelona

(lCMAB,CSIC) who organised thís

fruitful event. More inforrnalion can

be fouod at http://www.iemab.es/setn/.

lAVJER CAMro

Instituto dé' Ciencia de Materiales de Aragón (CSIC-University 01

Zaragoza), Spain AND

10sl: LUIS GARCIA-MuÑoz

Instituro de Ciencia de Materiales de Barcelona-eS/C, Spain

20 Years of Partnership Between Switzeriand and the ILL - A Symposium at PSI on November 28, 2008,

O n May 13, 1988, the contraet was

signed, making Switzcrland an

offieial Illember eountry of thc Institut

Lauc-Lal1gevin 'ILL' in Grcnob le,

France. Since then a very fruilfuJ part­

nership with manyfold co1Jaborations has been established.

On the occasion of Ibe 20th anní­

versary of the Swiss ILL membership

the 'Swíss State Secretaríat for Educa­

lion and Research' togclher with the

Volume 20 • Number 2 ·2009

Paul Seherrer Institnt (PSI) invíted for

a dedicated sympOSlllJll, which was

held al PSI on November 28, 200~.

Jn his we1come actdress Paul E.

Zinsli, Croro the Swiss State Secretar­

ial, not onJy )llenlioncd the successful

history 01' the partnership, bu! als()

u¡Jl1ounced that lhe contrac1 ror the

next five ycars has jusI been signed,

continuíng access to lhe 1LL for the

Swiss lIser communily_

Thc new director of PSI - 10el

F. Mesot - reminded oC the many

collaborations belween Swiss users

and lhe ¡LL: in particular he men­

tioned the use oC polari sed neutrons

(Cryopad/ILL and Mupad/S1NQ),

the fruilfuJ eollaborations on hybrid

time-of-f1ight speclorneters (IN4/IN6

concep1 influenced FOCUS/SINQ),

and the PSI dcveloprnenl of super­

nmrors (c.g. SI?\:Q oeulron guides),

Neutron News 11