Interdisciplinary Chemistry Division

Laboratory for Biophysical Chemistry

Research Interests

1. Structural chemistry on allostericproteins.
2. Energy flow inproteins.
3. Creation of artificial proteins with allostery.
4. Allostery and functionality ofproteins.
5. Development of techniques for time-resolvedspectroscopy.

Our research focuses on functionally-important protein dynamics to elucidate mechanism how they function. Protein dynamics are intimately connected to the structure/function relationship of biological systems. In numerous biological processes, the ensuing protein structural changes accompanying a reaction at a specific site must spatially extend to the mesoscopic dimensions of the protein to achieve a biological function. Protein dynamics span over a wide range of time scales. To answer questions on protein dynamics, we need the concatenation of experimental results recorded over many orders of magnitude of time. In this regard it is important that a single experimental technique can examine protein structures evolving from the earliest moments, such as the picosecond regime, toward time scales that are highly relevant to biological functions, such as themicrosecond or millisecond regimes. We are studying protein dynamics in the wide time window by using various time-resolved spectroscopic techniques, such as resonance Raman, absorption, andfluorescence spectroscopy.