Investigating photoreception and bio-catalysis using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography

Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) plays an important role in the understanding of structure-function relationships. With TR-SFX, protein structure and dynamics can be determined in real-time and at the atomic length scale. For a TR-SFX experiment, a reaction must be triggered inside protein crystals using various methods such as light activation, diffusion of a substrate, temperature jump, etc. Subsequent changes in the structure are probed by X-ray pulses in a time-resolved fashion. These time-resolved structural changes are used to gain insight into the mechanism of how proteins work.