Development of Neutron Biophysics

Abstract

Application of neutrons to biophysics was one of my long dreams from my student age. In order to understand the design principle of protein, I believed that neutron is an effective tool. Neutron inelastic scattering studies of protein dynamics are the proof of my conviction. The inelastic scattering spectrum I obtained is the most precise spectrum of a protein, and makes possible to compare with the theoretical spectrum. Both the conformation dependence and hydration dependence of protein dynamics are clarified by quasielastic scattering and dynamical transition behavior. Neutron can see hydrogen atom. By high resolution neutron crystallography, we revealed that the special type of hydrogen bond, low barrier hydrogen bond, is formed in the active center of photoactive yellow protein. We should extend neutron biophysics to the problems in life science.