ANSTO's research capabilities, led by the OPAL nuclear research reactor and associated instruments provide access to users investigating areas as diverse as materials, life sciences, climate change and mining/engineering.
National Deuteration Facility
Contact: Professor Peter Holden Phone: + 61 2 9717 3991
Email: ndf-enquiries@ansto.gov.au
The National Deuteration Facility is co-funded by ANSTO and the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) initiative of the Australian Government.
It offers the facilities, staff and expertise to produce molecules where all or part of the molecular hydrogen is in the form of the stable (non-radioactive) isotope deuterium (2H or D).
This is of benefit as it enables scientists to use neutron scattering or Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy more effectively in the investigation of the relationship between the structure and function of proteins, DNA, synthetic polymers or other materials known as 'soft matter'.
When molecules are placed in front of a neutron beam, hydrogen and deuterium scatter neutrons quite differently (ie they have a different scattering length density). Molecular deuteration of subunits of a molecule, or complex, enables the creation of contrast between these components and those containing 1H in a system that would otherwise offer far less information.
Thus, it is possible to observe the arrangement of subunits of an enzyme, or changes in shape when molecules interact or become active/inactive, using molecular deuteration and small angle neutron scattering.
This can be done with molecules in solution under relevant real life conditions using the small-angle neutron scattering instrument Quokka at the OPAL reactor.
Another application is to produce deuterated molecules for neutron crystallography where deuteration leads to a much reduced backgorund in the data and enables use of a smaller crystal. This technique may be used to obtain information about the position of key hydrogens in a molecule, for example in the region responsible for catalysis by an enzyme.
Thus neutron crystallography of deuterated proteins may augment information obtained from X-ray crystal structures that have ambiguity in the position of hydrogens in the molecule (due to X-rays lesser ability to 'see' hydrogen).
A third application involves the use of neutron reflectivity (Platypus at the OPAL Reactor) and selective deuteration of lipid molecules in model biomembrane bilayer systems in order to obtain information about the behaviour of various components during events such as disruption by toxins or attack by enzymes, as well as the position and shape of membrane bound proteins.
More information on Biological and Chemical Deuteration Laboratories is also available
How Molecular Deuteration works
The National Deuteration Facility offers molecular deuteration using either in vivo biodeuteration or chemical deuteration techniques. Biodeuteration involves the use of microbial expression systems. Typically, Escherichia coli is grown in heavy water (D2O) on either a hydrogenated (1H) or deuterated (2H) carbon compound to obtain partly or totally deuterated proteins, nucleic acids or other biomolecules.
The biomass is harvested and the desired molecule purified and characterised to ensure it is structurally analogous to the native molecule of interest, for details please see Biological Deuteration Laboratories.
Chemical deuteration involves deuterating the building blocks for the desired molecule by exposing them to D2O at high temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst and then organic chemistry techniques are used to synthesise the target molecule in its deuterated form, for details please see Chemical Deuteration Laboratories.
More information on National Deuteration Facility:
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