Membrane Pharmacy Structure Dynamics  Research group : Priv.Doz. Dr. Thomas Nawroth  Flash-Photochemistry

We use flash photochemistry for triggering biological reactions (enymes, membrane transport, structure generation) with an optical signal. This can be done with a photoactive oxygen-protein, e.g. carbon-monoxide (CO) derivatives of Myoglobin, Hemoglobin, Cytochrome-Oxidase, Quinol-oxidase or photosystems (PS-I, PS-II, Bacteriorhodopsin); caged-compounds; or chemical photolabels. In most cases this is the initial step of a time resolved study of a biological process. With membrane proteins, e.g. ATP-synthase, this can be used for membrane energization, i.e. energy delivery to a bioenergetic process. Note that in this case also the membrane structure changes (recent finding of the MPSD group by spectroscopy and time resolved neutron scattering of liposomes).