This webinar talk presents advances in femtosecond crystallography for structural biology, focusing on nanoscale crystals and their application in medicine and energy. Center for Applied Structural Discovery at ASU's Biodesign Institute is developing cutting-edge methods to explore molecular structures with atomic resolution. Using X-ray free-electron lasers, the team captures molecular images before radiation damage occurs, achieving breakthroughs in resolving complex biomolecules like photosystem I.
SONICC (Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Imaging of Chiral Crystals) plays a key role in identifying nanocrystals, even at high throughput, revolutionizing crystallization and molecular movie creation.
About the Presentation
Presented by Petra Fromme, Ph.D. - University of Arizona. This presentation was part of the Protein Crystallization Automation Webinar Series by Formulatrix. Dr. Petra Fromme received her B.S. (Vordiplom) and M.S. (Diplom) in Biochemistry from the Free University of Berlin, received her Ph.D. in chemistry, and did her habilitation in physical chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. Dr. Fromme was an Assistant and Associate Professor at the Max Volmer Institute before joining Arizona State University as a full Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences.
Dr. Fromme and is an affiliated member of the Department of Physics, members of the graduate faculty in the Plant Biology and Biological Design graduate programs and was awarded the Paul V Galvin Professorship in 2012 and named a Regents' Professor in 2015. Dr. Fromme was appointed by ASU President Michael Crow as the director of the Center for Applied Structural Discovery in 2014. Dr. Fromme’s research interests are in studying the structure-to-function relationship of membrane proteins involved in bioenergy conversion and infectious diseases.
She was an integral part of a team of ASU researchers and international colleagues that developed the technique of serial femtosecond nanocrystallography for analyzing proteins using high-intensity X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL). Dr. Fromme has vast experience unraveling the structure and function of photosystem I and II proteins and ATP synthase, which are each crucial for solar energy conversion in our biosphere. Dr. Fromme has published over 200 articles and is internationally recognized as a leader in photosynthesis, protein macromolecular crystallography using synchrotron, and protein nanocrystallography using XFELs.