Presenter Profile
Eriko Nango
Professor
Tohoku University, Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Material
Eriko Nango is a Professor at Tohoku University, affiliated with the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Material. With a passion for cutting-edge research in structural biology and X-ray crystallography, Dr. Nango has made significant contributions to the field of protein dynamics and time-resolved structural studies. Her expertise lies in the development and application of X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) techniques, which offer unparalleled temporal resolution for capturing dynamic atomic structures. Dr. Nango has been at the forefront of the advancement of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) at the SACLA facility in Japan. Through her work, she has successfully achieved 3D molecular movies of various light-sensitive proteins, including bacteriorhodopsin, chloride pump rhodopsin, channelrhodopsin, and photosystem II, shedding light on their intricate photoreactions.
TALK TITLE
3D movies of structural changes in proteins captured by X-ray free electron lasers
KEYWORDS
X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL), Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), Molecular movie analysis
ABSTRACT
Conventional X-ray protein crystallography captures only "static" structures due to the limitation of temporal resolution. Recently, X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL) became available in five countries in the world, enabling to capture dynamic structures at the atomic level with time resolutions of several tenth femtoseconds. In Japan, the XFEL facility named SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser) started user operation in 2012 following LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source) in the United States. We have been working on the development of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX), which is a protein structure determination technique, at SACLA and successfully obtained a 3D molecular movie of various light-sensitive proteins including bacteriorhodopsin, chloride pump rhodopsin, channelrhodopsin, and photosystem II by combining an X-ray free electron laser with a pump laser to initiate photoreaction. This technique is suitable for tracking fast reactions such as chemical reactions because of its high temporal resolution.
Recently, mix-and-inject serial crystallography allowed to visualization of structural changes and reactions in light-insensitive proteins including enzymes and receptors. In this method, microcrystals are rapidly mixed with a small molecule such as a substrate and a ligand in a microchannel and exposed by an XFEL pulse, resulting in visualization of the process of enzymatic reactions. In this presentation, I will present our development of techniques for molecular movie analysis and several successful results using the techniques.