Westenhoff Group

Illustration showing an extended roll of film against a background of plants. In each frame there is a crystal structure of a protein. In one of the frames, the protein is illuminated with light, which causes its conformation to change.

Time resolved structural biology of photoactive proteins

The aim of our research is to understand structural dynamics of biological photoactive systems. Time-resolved crystallography allows us to make molecular movies of photoactive systems transiting between their illuminated and non-illuminated states. This allows us to identify how the conformational changes in proteins occur and which molecules are participating in the dynamics. Combining the results from the other topics with SFX data allows us to increase our knowledge of how photoactive proteins work on a molecular level.

Read more about our research

Group members

Research leader: Sebastian Westenhoff

Group members: Sebastian Cardoch, Sadat Chowdhury, Gabriel Ducrocq, Anna-Lena Fischer, Candice Gautier, Lukas Grunewald, Taru Larkiala, Seoyoung Lee, Yat Kei Lo, Leonardo Monrroy, Kendra Njo, Filip Perschke, Sayan Prodhan, Melina Sjögren, Yalin Zhou

Publications

Refolding of the Deinococcus Radiodurans phytochrome photosensory module and backbone resonance assignment by solution NMR

Vrhovac, Lidija; Levkovets, Maria; Orekhov, Vladislav; Westenhoff, Sebastian

Part of Protein Expression and Purification, 2025
- DOI for Refolding of the Deinococcus Radiodurans phytochrome photosensory module and backbone resonance assignment by solution NMR
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Observation of early events in the photoactivation of Myxobacterial phytochrome using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography

Malla, Tek Narsingh; Aldama, Luis; Leon, Viridiana; Feliz, Denisse et al.

Part of Communications Chemistry, 2025
- DOI for Observation of early events in the photoactivation of Myxobacterial phytochrome using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography
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Ultrafast, remote-controlled protonation reaction enables structural changes in a phytochrome

Shankar, Madan Kumar; Grunewald, Lukas; Wahlgren, Weixiao Yuan; Stucki-Buchli, Brigitte et al.

Part of Science Advances, 2025
- DOI for Ultrafast, remote-controlled protonation reaction enables structural changes in a phytochrome
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Chemical Mechanism of Allosteric and Asymmetric Dark Reversion in a Bacterial Phytochrome Uncovered by Cryo-EM

Bódizs, Szabolcs; Fischer, Anna-Lena M.; Cervenak, Miklós; Prodhan, Sayan et al.

Part of Journal of the American Chemical Society, p. 45701-45711, 2025
- DOI for Chemical Mechanism of Allosteric and Asymmetric Dark Reversion in a Bacterial Phytochrome Uncovered by Cryo-EM
Detection of a hybrid PrPfr state in the dark reversion of a bathy phytochrome indicates inter-dimer allostery

Prodhan, Sayan; Mészáros, Petra; Bódizs, Szabolcs; Zhou, Yalin et al.

Part of Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics - PCCP, p. 20279-20287, 2025
- DOI for Detection of a hybrid PrPfr state in the dark reversion of a bathy phytochrome indicates inter-dimer allostery
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Cryo-EM exposes diverse polymorphism in IAPP mutants to guide the rational design of peptide-based therapeutics

Ooi, Saik Ann; Valli, Dylan; Kuska, Mikolaj I.; Mari, Helena et al.

Part of Journal of Molecular Biology, 2025
- DOI for Cryo-EM exposes diverse polymorphism in IAPP mutants to guide the rational design of peptide-based therapeutics
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Time-resolved serial crystallography to reveal protein structural changes

Mészáros, Petra; Westenhoff, Sebastian

Part of Trends in Biochemical Sciences (TIBS), p. 183-184, 2024
- DOI for Time-resolved serial crystallography to reveal protein structural changes
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Directed ultrafast conformational changes accompany electron transfer in a photolyase as resolved by serial crystallography

Cellini, Andrea; Shankar, Madan Kumar; Nimmrich, Amke; Hunt, Leigh Anna et al.

Part of Nature Chemistry, p. 624-632, 2024
- DOI for Directed ultrafast conformational changes accompany electron transfer in a photolyase as resolved by serial crystallography
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Cryo-EM structures of a bathy phytochrome histidine kinase reveal a unique light-dependent activation mechanism

Bódizs, Szabolcs; Mészáros, Petra; Grunewald, Lukas; Takala, Heikki et al.

Part of Structure, p. 1952-1962000, 2024
- DOI for Cryo-EM structures of a bathy phytochrome histidine kinase reveal a unique light-dependent activation mechanism
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Microsecond time-resolved X-ray scattering by utilizing MHz repetition rate at second-generation XFELs

Konold, Patrick; Monrroy, Leonardo; Bellisario, Alfredo; de Matos Filipe, Diogo et al.

Part of Nature Methods, p. 1608-1611, 2024
- DOI for Microsecond time-resolved X-ray scattering by utilizing MHz repetition rate at second-generation XFELs
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Ground-state heterogeneity and vibrational energy redistribution in bacterial phytochrome observed with femtosecond 2D IR spectroscopy

Chenchiliyan, Manoop; Kuebel, Joachim; Ooi, Saik Ann; Salvadori, Giacomo et al.

Part of Journal of Chemical Physics, 2023
- DOI for Ground-state heterogeneity and vibrational energy redistribution in bacterial phytochrome observed with femtosecond 2D IR spectroscopy
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3D-printed sheet jet for stable megahertz liquid sample delivery at X-ray free-electron lasers

Konold, Patrick E.; You, Tong; Bielecki, Johan; Valerio, Joana et al.

Part of IUCrJ, p. 662-670, 2023
- DOI for 3D-printed sheet jet for stable megahertz liquid sample delivery at X-ray free-electron lasers
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Structural mechanism of signal transduction in a phytochrome histidine kinase

Wahlgren, Weixiao Yuan; Claesson, Elin; Tuure, Iida; Trillo-Muyo, Sergio et al.

Part of Nature Communications, 2022
- DOI for Structural mechanism of signal transduction in a phytochrome histidine kinase
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Structural basis of the radical pair state in photolyases and cryptochromes

Cellini, Andrea; Shankar, Madan Kumar; Wahlgren, Weixiao Yuan; Nimmrich, Amke et al.

Part of Chemical Communications, p. 4889-4892, 2022
- DOI for Structural basis of the radical pair state in photolyases and cryptochromes
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Protein motions visualized by femtosecond time-resolved crystallography: The case of photosensory vs photosynthetic proteins

Westenhoff, Sebastian; Meszaros, Petra; Schmidt, Marius

Part of Current opinion in structural biology, 2022
- DOI for Protein motions visualized by femtosecond time-resolved crystallography: The case of photosensory vs photosynthetic proteins
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Directed ultrafast conformational changes accompany electrontransfer in a photolyase as resolved by serial crystallography

Cellini, Andrea; Shankar, Madan Kumar; Nimmrich, Amke; Hunt, Leigh Anna et al.
Insight into signaling mechanism of the Deinococcus Radiodurans phytochrome chromophore binding core: a solution NMR study

Vrhovac, Lidija; Orekhov, Vladislav; Westenhoff, Sebastian
Towards a fusion strategy for visualizing small proteins in Cryo-EM: fructose-6-phosphate aldolase as a carrier for an 18 kDa protein

Mutisya, Jennifer; Bodiscz, Szabolc; Leufstadius, Joel; Westenhoff, Sebastian et al.
Structural photoactivation of a bathy phytochrome resolved by time-resolved X-ray crystallography

Mészáros, Petra; Grunewald, Lukas; Prodhan, Sayan; Monrroy, Leonardo et al.