News
Review by Carlos Baiz (Humboldt Fellow and SFB 1078 Research Visitor)
Carlos Baiz, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, is visiting the SFB 1078 and Prof Heberle’s group at the FU Berlin again as part of his Humboldt Fellowship. He published a paper in the June 2024 issue of the Annual Review of Physical Chemistry Journal, which benefited from his collaboration with the SFB1078, and reviews modern techniques for characterizing cell membrane interfaces. It highlights advances in vibrational spectroscopy, such as surface-enhanced infrared spectroscopy (SEIRAS), two-dimensional sum-frequency generation spectroscopy, and two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy. These techniques, combined with multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, provide detailed insights into membrane structure and dynamics. After his fellowship, Baiz plans to establish time-resolved nano-IR spectroscopy capabilities at UT Austin.
Jul 12, 2024
More than half of expected hydrogen atoms in PSII discovered by Hussein et al (project A05, published in Science)
Project A05 is focussing their research on the protein complex photosystem II. In a new Science paper they used cryo-electron microscopy to visiualize PSII at even higher resolution than existing x-ray structures to identify protons. Hussein et al. collected high-resolution cryo–electron microscopy data of fully hydrated photosystem II from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus vestitus to a final resolution of 1.71 angstroms. The structure reveals several previously undetected partially occupied water binding sites and more than half of the hydrogen and proton positions. This clarifies the pathways of substrate water binding and plastoquinone B protonation.
Jun 20, 2024
Renowned Scientist Prof. Amdursky joins FU Berlin as Humboldt Fellow
Prof. Joachim Heberle (Speaker of the SFB1078, Experimental Molecular Biophysics, FU Berlin) proudly welcomes Prof. Nadav Amdursky from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Schulich (Faculty of Chemistry in Haifa, Israel) as a Humboldt Fellow. Prof. Amdursky is an esteemed researcher in the field of charge transport across bioderived materials. He is set to undertake a cutting-edge research project titled "Following Proton Transfer from a Photo-Released Proton within Biological Systems with Transient Mid-IR and Raman Spectroscopies" . His research stay will contribute significantly to our CRC 1078.
Jun 03, 2024
SFB Speaker Joachim Heberle Co-organizer of Telluride Workshop 2024 (16 – 20/7/2024)
Joachim Heberle, speaker of SFB 1078,co-organizes this year's Telluride Workshop "Proton Transfer in Biology" in Colorado
May 24, 2024
Wikström Symposium Helsinki, 26 April
Ville Kaila (SFB 1078 Mercator Fellow) is organising the symposium "Mechanisms of Primary Energy Transduction in Biology" on 26 April in Helsinki, Finland. Organised to commemorate Wikström's legacy, the symposium promises to provide participants with a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in the field.
Apr 20, 2024
SFB public outreach at the Hessische Oberstufenschülerakademie
Jesse Jones, a PhD candidate in our integrated graduate school (IGK), volunteered in the annual Hessische Oberstufenschülerakademie in August for his 6th time, this time representing our SFB.
Jan 22, 2024
CRC 1078 mourns the death of Ulrike Alexiev
We are deeply saddened to announce the death of CRC 1078 founding member Ulrike Alexiev.
Jan 03, 2024
Public Outreach at the Berlin Science Week
Nov 10, 2023
IGK alumni Florian Brünig's successful disputation
Former member of our Integrated Graduate School (IGK) Florian Brünig, from the group of PI Roland Netz (Project C1), has successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations, Florian!
Nov 08, 2023
IGK at the Berlin Science Week 2023
The IGK will be demonstrating some of the work they do on protonation dynamics at the Berlin Science Week 2023 in the Museum for Naturkunde.
Nov 03, 2023
PI Peter Hegemann will speak about optobiology at the 22nd Einstein Lecture Dahlem
The lecture will take place at 18:00 on November 7th, 2023.
Oct 26, 2023
New insight into rhodopsin function revealed by SFB 1078 project B3 in 2 publications
Project B3 has published two new papers in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B about channel-rhodopsins, which are light-activated membrane proteins that transport ions across cell membranes. In Schubert et al., IGK members Luiz Schubert and Jheng-Liang Chen alongside PIs Joachim Heberle (B3/ A1 ), Ville Kaila ( Mercator Fellow ), and Ramona Schlesinger ( project B4 ) aim to understand vectorial ion transport. Using time-resolved IR spectroscopy in combination with molecular dynamics, they investigated the protonation pathway of the inward-directed proton pump xenorhodopsin from Nanosalina sp ( Ns XeR). Their findings suggest that residue D220 assists with mediating proton release, and is not the primary proton acceptor for protons transiently released by the retinal Schiff base. In Saliminasab et al., they investigate a new instance of convergent evolution within sensory rhodopsins, a phenomona where unrelated or very distant protein groups display the same function.
Oct 03, 2023
Review article about SEIRAS has been published in Nature Reviews Methods Primers
SFB 1078 PIs Jacek Kozuch (Project B9) and Joachim Heberle (A1, B3) shared their extensive knowledge on surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS), together with Dr. Kenichi Ataka, in an invited review which was published in the September issue of Nature Reviews Methods Primers .
Sep 19, 2023
SFB 1078 in Stockholm
The 14th European Biophysical Society Association (EBSA) Congress 2023 took place in the idyllic capital of Sweden. Included in its program were several scientific contributions by the SFB.
Aug 15, 2023
Publication from Humboldt fellow Carlos Baiz on authorship best practices
Dr. Carlos Baiz from the University of Texas at Austin received the prestigious Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, enabling him to conduct research at the Freie Universität Berlin. He spent the latter half of 2022 collaborating with SFB speaker Joachim Heberle and colleagues, contributing his infrared spectroscopy knowledge to the development of new imaging techniques such as nano-infrared (nano-IR) spectroscopy. Last week, he published a paper in the Biophysical Journal suggesting an improved approach to authorship in biophysics publications. He argues that as the field of biophysics grows and becomes increasingly collaborative, the traditional practices to evaluate authorship should be reviewed and revised. He suggests the development of definitive guidelines which will hopefully make navigating the challenges of determining authorship easier, such as data ownership. He also discusses the evaluation of authorship order.
May 10, 2023
2 SFB Publications in Nature about Photosystem II
Postdoc and former IGK member Rana Hussein, together with PIs Athina Zouni and Holger Dobbek (project A5), have published a paper in Nature elucidating the mechanisms underlying the formation of oxygen during photosynthesis, a mechanism also examined by IGK member Paul Greife and PI Holger Dau (project A4) in a second Nature publication. Together, their work not only deepens our understanding of protein function but paves the way for the clean production of storable energy with artificial photosynthesis via water-splitting processes.
May 08, 2023
SFB 1078 at the 2023 Biophysical Society Conference
The Proton Reactions Conference in Tahoe, California has been co-organized by former PI Ana-Nicoleta Bondar.
Feb 09, 2023
