Sunlight is the driving force behind all biological processes on earth. To synchronize their biological clocks with the natural day-night cycle, most living things rely on photosensitive proteins called cryptochromes. In this work, the research group of Prof. Manuel Maestre-Reyes, a faculty member of the Department of Chemistry, NTU, utilized time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography to film a 3D molecular movie of cryptochrome photoreception and subsequent structural changes from 10 ns to 233 ms after illumination.

These results give unprecedented insight into the principles of light-triggered processes in nature. In addition, charge separation via transient RP formation is central to oxidative phosphorylation, photosynthesis, and even biomagnetosensitivity. Thus, the cryptochrome molecular mechanism may act as a model system to better understand the fundamentals of these central topics in biophysical chemistry.