Welcome

Elucidating signal transduction processes in biology is fundamental, if we want to understand the mechanisms of life and engineer novel photoreceptors with custom-tailored light-regulated function. However, watching proteins work in various time scales (from the femtosecond to the steady state) is very challenging and has been the subject of intense research.

Time-resolved spectroscopy has revolutionized the understanding of protein function by probing excited states and revealing the kinetic profile of light-triggered intermediates. On the other hand, time-resolved X-ray techniques have generated atomic resolution models of structural intermediates and revealed conformational dynamics by providing snapshots of the dynamic processes in light-sensitive biomolecules. None of these experimental techniques is able to unravel dynamic processes in biomolecules by itself, whereas quantum mechanical and classical dynamics numerical calculations are needed to complement the experimental results. To that goal, the synergy of time-resolved spectroscopy and time-resolved X-ray techniques is indispensable as it provides the necessary temporal and spatial resolution to reveal the functional dynamics of biomolecules.

Specific topics of focus that will be addressed in pedagogical lectures and research presentations include:

• time-resolved spectroscopy (infrared, resonance Raman, circular dichroism, fluorescence)
• serial crystallography and time-resolved crystallography at synchrotrons and XFELs
• time-resolved small/wide-angle solution scattering and time-resolved cryo EM
• sensory photoreceptors of optogenetic interest (rhodopsins, cryptochromes, LOV domains, BLUF domains), membrane proteins, photosynthetic systems, UV-damage, heme proteins, flavoproteins
• computational biology (MD simulations, DFT, QM/MM)
• software development for time-resolved spectroscopy and time-resolved serial crystallography

The FEBS workshop ‘Time-resolved spectroscopy meets time-resolved crystallography: the future of dynamic photobiology’ is the second edition of the workshop which was organized in a virtual mode (https://meetings.embo.org/event/23-dynamic-photobiology) in April 2023. In the second edition, the current developments and future directions will be discussed in order to strengthen and put forward the synergy between the two fields.