The ILL is a European research facility, in which the Czech Republic is a prominent member, along with neighbouring countries like Slovakia and Austria. The ILL reactor provides the most intense, continuous neutron beams in the world, in particular for low energy neutrons that are used to study the structure and dynamics of macromolecular complexes. A major, 60 M€, facility upgrade programme is underway in which all of the instruments for structural biology are being significantly improved. In particular, a second protein crystallography instrument has recently been commissioned and the small angle scattering instruments are benefitting from larger detectors, which increase count rate and dynamic range. In this way, significant new capability is being created for structural biology, supported by services for sample preparation (crystal growth, selective deuteration of proteins and natural lipids, etc) and flexible beam time adapted to the needs of the biology community. While neutrons are not the most widely used analytical probe in this field, they do offer unique insight through the sensitivity to light atoms (in particular hydrogen) and contrast variation possibilities by hydrogen-deuterium substitution.
In this talk, I will present an overview of new developments at ILL and illustrate their application in structural biology with recent examples, including, of course, a range of COVID-related experiments.