Neutron scattering and cell signalling

Neutron scattering research techniques that can show how nature uses complex protein structures to get cells to respond and adapt to stimuli in the body, could be the new tool to help researchers find new drugs to treat diseases such as heart failure or cancer. Dr Jill Trewhella, a joint ANSTO and Sydney University Research Fellow, is an expert in using neutron scattering to study cell signalling systems which regulate the body.

Dr Trewhella's work focuses on the molecular details of signal transduction within cells.

Dr Trewhella equates the neutron scattering techniques she uses to study enzymes, to looking at black and white cats playing together on different coloured mats.

"Neutron scattering lets you look at molecules interacting with each other by labelling one of them with an isotope, in this case substituting deuterium for all hydrogen atoms, so the neutron scattering profile is changed," she explained. "It's a little bit like having a black cat and a white cat on a mat playing together: if you put them on a black mat you can see what the white cat is doing, and vice versa, but if you put them on a grey mat you can then see what each one is doing in the presence of the other.

"That's the unique thing about this neutron scattering experiment, there's no other technique which will allow you to do that and observe the shape changes of individual molecules when they are interacting in solution," she said.

To carry out these types of experiments a cold neutron source is required and at present Australia does not have one. However, once ANSTO's OPAL reactor is completed at the end of this year this will change.