Resolving chemical and biochemical reactions with atomic resolution

Charge transfer reactions are ubiquitous in biology and chemistry. They prompt a strong ‘reorganization’ around the transfer sites.

Yet, these molecular trajectories are not resolved experimentally, which broadly holds back progress in chemistry.To fill this gap, I propose to ‘film’ electron transfer reactions in proteins and in solution chemistry using cutting-edge femtosecond diffraction methods at X-ray Free Electron Lasers.First, I plan to disclose the structural relaxation around a paradigm electron transfer cascade in photolyases/cryptochromes using femtosecond crystallography.

In parallel, I will pioneer 3D trajectories of the solvent reorganization of photocatalytic charge transfer reactions using X-ray solution scattering.

Finally, I propose to directly image photoinduced electrons in photolyases and photosynthetic proteins with the finest time and spatial resolutions, thereby ´filming´ charge coherences in biology.To achieve this, I plan to dramatically increase the sensitivity of the methods through technical improvements, machine-learning in data analysis, and by use of correlations of fluctuations in the X-ray scattering.The results will pioneer ground-breaking insights into how proteins and solvents respond to charge transfer.

It will culminate in a ‘movie’ of charge migration through a protein, opening radically new horizons in quantum biology. The results may lead to innovative approaches for controlling charge transfer in solar energy technologies.