MaNDi - An Instrument for the Structural Biology Community
The initial designs for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) called for many instruments to support physics research. Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) determined it could be valuable to examine the biological implications of the SNS.
First, ORAU sponsored a workshop in April 2002 inviting all of its member schools. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) invited a number of researchers as well. The workshop identified a whole range of fundamental questions on the structure, function, and dynamics of biological materials that could be uniquely addressed at the SNS with the creation of a dedicated beam line to house the structural biology community’s own instrument.
Later that same year, a group of participants in that initial workshop formed a 10-member task force, also funded by ORAU, that would further explore the opportunities offered to the structural biology field by the neutron scattering capabilities of the SNS.
By 2003, the task force had agreed to the conceptual design of MaNDi, a Macromolecular Neutron Diffractometer. and established an instrument design team. In 2005, MaNDi passed the rigorous approval process of the SNS Experimental Facilities Advisory Committee.
The concept for MaNDi was initiated through ORAU-sponsored workshops. In 2005, it became the 17th instrument assigned to a beam line at the SNS, the first instrument for the structural biology community. MaNDi will occupy beam line 11B at the SNS.
With unanimous support from the Department of Energy, NSF, and the National Institutes of Health, the next step is to solidify funding for MaNDi’s construction and the experimental infrastructure required for a successful biology program.
The worldwide biology community has much to be excited about in how MaNDi and related instrumentation at the SNS can advance their research on the structures of molecules, functioning of membranes, and reaction mechanisms—knowledge that is often critical to understanding how diseases occur.