Protein Dynamics

At the length scale of a single protein the fastest processes in biology occur within femtoseconds. On this time scale bonds are made and broken, and the motions that ultimately lead to protein function begin. To follow dynamics this fast we need a camera that won’t miss out on the action: that means we need femtosecond time resolution. Ultrafast lasers, which can now be used to generate sub-femtosecond pulses, provide us with the tools we need to access this quantum mechanical realm. Using the versatile tools of nonlinear spectroscopy we can initiate and probe fundamental processes such as energy and charge transfer that are the engines of biology. Learn more about some of the techniques we use below.