TIMENESS

Zeitaufgelöste Neutronenstreuung - und spektroskopie für Struktur-Dynamik-Beziehungen während der molekularen Assemblierung

01.07.2026 bis 30.06.2030

TIMENESS establishes sample environment and data analysis for time-resolved neutron scattering to monitor structure and dynamics during molecular assembly of soft materials.
We establish two modes of sample preparation into flow-through cells at SANS and QENS instruments at ESS: microfluidic rapid mixing and constant feeding from a (bio)chemical reactor. A SANS cell exists at LOKI, and we develop missing QENS flow-through cells for CSPEC and MIRACLES, enabling additional optical spectroscopy for monitoring. To optimize the information from the multi-modal data stream, we use theory-grounded approaches for online optimization of experiments, and develop data-driven analysis of multi-modal data.
We address structure-dynamics relations during molecular assembly. First, we study intermediates during protein assembly and phase separation, whose dynamical nature determine the fate of functionality. Second, we target lipid reorganization in lipid nanoparticles during synthesis and in response to biofluids where dynamics enables structural changes towards (dys)functional drug delivery. Third, the dynamics of polymer microgels determines synthesis pathways and affects the stimulus response.
TIMENESS is a collaboration between Swedish and German universities and ESS, and unites experts in SANS and QENS. We boost time-resolved scattering as one central promise at ESS from first science on, with future applications in pharmaceutical and food formulations, nanotechnology, and biomaterials.