What is Bio-SANS?
Bio-SANS is a Biological Small-Angle Neutron Scattering instrument that uses neutrons to study the structure and function of complex biological materials with high precision.
As part of the Center for Structural Molecular Biology, Bio-SANS helps researchers investigate the molecular details of biological processes — including analyzing disease mechanisms, electron transfer processes in cellular systems, and the structural changes in plant cell walls during processing and conversion of biomass during fuel production.Â
Bio-SANS is a specialized neutron instrument designed with high neutron flux and low experimental background noise, making it ideal for biological research. The instrument has a modular platform that supports a variety of sample environments, including humidity chambers and flow cells, to accommodate complex measurements.
Bio-SANS provides researchers with detailed information about the three-dimensional shape and assembly of large biological molecules, and could significantly extend the number, size and complexity of biological systems that are accessible to neutron scattering analysis.
In 2016, a technicians installed a wide-angle detector bank that increased the accessible scattering q-range 15-fold, critical for time-resolved studies of hierarchical and large biological systems. Advancements in sample environment capabilities include:
- an improved pressure cell
- a multi-position sample holder with rotational (tumbling) capability
- a humidity-controlled chamber
- a flow cell
Furthermore, grazing-incidence SANS in conjunction with the humidity chamber is also being developed. The sample area has also been reconfigured to provide flexibility in mounting a wider range of sample environments. Recent implementation of automated batch-processing for data reduction through open source software (MantidPlot) enhances the efficiency of the neutron scattering user experiments.