Ultra-fast molecular movie : watching proteins absorbing light
Using a revolutionary method, scientists have been able to film ultra-rapid processes at work in fluorescent proteins, which are extensively used as markers in in vivo imaging. This new method, which uses enormous X-ray lasers, permits the analysis of processes such as vision, bioluminescence and other phenomena which have not been observable to date. These results are to be published in Nature Chemistry on September, the 11th, as part of an international collaboration involving scientists from the IBS, the Universities of Lille, Rennes 1 and Paris-Sud, and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research at Heidelberg in Germany.
Coquelle, N., Sliwa, M., Woodhouse, J. et al. Chromophore twisting in the excited state of a photoswitchable fluorescent protein captured by time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography. Nature Chem 10, 31–37 (2018). https://doi-org.insb.bib.cnrs.fr/10.1038/nchem.2853