New tools for time-resolved X-ray crystallography

Over the last 10 years, Time-resolved crystallography has entered a renaissance.

The development of free-electron lasers has allowed the ultrafast determination of structural changes occurring in important light sensitive systems such as photosystems 1 & 2, bacteriorhodopsin and photoactive yellow protein. However, many biological systems are not inherently photoactive and their functional dynamics occur on slower timescales from nanoseconds - seconds.

Our work focuses on the development of new techniques applicable to these systems using widely available synchrotron radiation, in order to allow time-resolved crystallography to become part of the standard structural biology toolkit.