Life Science Research by using IBARAKI Biological Crystal Diffractometer

Abstract

Single crystal neutron diffraction is one of the powerful methods to obtain the structure information, including that of the hydrogen atoms. The IBARAKI biological crystal diffractometer called iBIX is a high-performance time-of-flight single crystal neutron diffractometer to elucidate the hydrogen, protonation and hydration structures of biological macromolecules in various life processes. Most notably merit of neutron diffraction is the observation of hydrogen atoms and protonation states. From the remarkable results by the iBIX, actual application of merit of neutron diffraction for protein science are as follows: (a) Finding tautomerization, (b) Observation of hydrogen bonds, (c) Determination of orientations of side chains and water solvents, (d) Observation of hydrogen around metal atom. Current status of the iBIX and interesting results with merit of neutron diffraction obtained by the iBIX are reported.