Research Collaborations

ILL / EMBL / ESRF

Three major European institutes are established in Grenoble's science park:

• the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), at the leading edge of neutron research
• an outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the renowned international centre for molecular and structural biology
• the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), one of the world's most powerful sources of synchrotron light

Nowhere else in the world can we find this combination of an extremely intense neutron source and an equally powerful synchrotron light source. As service institutes, the EMBL, ESRF and ILL make their facilities available to their visiting scientists. Every year, over 8 000 researchers from all over the world come to use them.

The three institutes have jointly set up the Partnership for Structural Biology. This centre of excellence in molecular biology brings together resources and expertise from the ILL, ESRF, EMBL and IBS (Institut de Biologie Structurale) to pursue an integrated programme in structural biology. It includes a unique biological deuteration laboratory for the preparation of deuterated macromolecules for use in neutron and NMR studies.

Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter

Soft condensed matter studies
include those on polymer fibres

The science at many ESRF beamlines and ILL instruments will increase significantly over the next years thanks to a new Partnership for Soft Condensed Matter (PSCM). On 27 November 2009, the Directors of the ILL and the ESRF established this collaboration with the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

By early 2013, the PSCM will be able to host 20 to 30 scientists and technicians working in 800m2 of laboratory and office space in the new Science Building of the joint ESRF/ILL campus. In these laboratories, scientists will prepare experiments with highly complex self-assembled and non-equilibrium soft matter systems which cannot be easily transported to Grenoble. Many materials related to nanotechnologies, life sciences, environment and renewable energy are, in fact, soft matter systems.

More information

X-rays and neutrons: two complementary techniques

X-rays and neutrons perceive the atomic world in different ways: X-rays see the electrons, while neutrons see the nuclei of atoms. Neutrons are also particularly sensitive to hydrogen. Combining the images produced by X-rays and neutrons therefore gives us a much fuller picture.

For example, if we wish to understand more completely how the thousands of atoms which make up a biological molecule are arranged, we can examine the molecule using both techniques.
X-rays give us an extremely precise image of the position of the atoms, with the exception of the hydrogen atoms which are barely visible since they only contain one electron. On the other hand, the same hydrogen atoms can be seen clearly using neutrons.