Protein crystallography with neutrons - status and perspectives

The current state of the art and future perspectives for protein crystallog raphy with neutrons have been reviewed and discussed at an international wo rkshop recently organized by the Hahn-Meitner-Institut (HMI) and Max-Delbru ck-Center (MDC) in Berlin, and supported by the Neutron Round Table activit y. The main topics discussed and the conclusions drawn are presented in thi s paper. While the available flux from even the most powerful neutron sourc es is much lower than that available at a modern synchrotron-radiation sour ce, there is no doubt that neutrons can additionally provide vital informat ion in structural biology that is difficult to obtain using other methods. One of the overriding themes at the workshop was the fact that the current instrumentation and facilities do not fully exploit the neutron beams that are available. Current trends indicate that many of the problems that have limited the efficiency of biological neutron scattering have been recognize d and with new technological advances important efforts are under way to ta ckle these problems. It is clear that the use of neutrons in biology will b ecome increasingly significant at existing and new neutron sources.