研究领域

Biochemistry/Physical Chemistry

The research in our group focuses on the structural biochemistry and biophysics of membrane proteins. Membrane proteins perform most of the important processes in all living cells. For example, respiration, photosynthesis, cell communication, cell import/export, cell growth and recognition are catalyzed and regulated by membrane proteins. These proteins do not act in an isolated way; they rather perform communication within the cell by binding and releasing of cofactors and soluble signal-transducing proteins. Membrane proteins are also key player in infectious diseases as they mediate entry of viral and bacterial pathogens into the host cell and also play an important role in the cell defense against the pathogens. The main step for the elucidation of the complex in whole living cells is the understanding of the structure, dynamics and function of the membrane proteins that play the key role in these processes. Our research field is of a very interdisciplinary nature and includes biochemical investigations, molecular biology, spectroscopy, crystallization, X-ray structure analysis, as well as theoretical investigations. Petra Fromme's group is part of a large international collaboration who are pioneers the new field of serial femtosecond nanocrystallography using Free electron lasers, where structure determination is based on femtosecond X-ray diffraction from a stream of nanocrystals, which will allow the determination of molecular movies of biomolecules at work in the future. The Fromme group has two major biological fields of interest: Photosynthesis and Infectious Diseases. Photosynthesis is the main process on earth converting light energy provided by the sun into chemical energy. It is the unique energy source for all higher life on earth and produces all the oxygen in the atmosphere. The work on Photosynthesis includes the investigation of the structure and function of the large membrane protein complexes involved in the primary processes of photosynthesis and the development of an artificial oxygen evolving complex in DNA nanocages, and is part of the ASU Center for Bio-Inspired Solar Fuel production. A special focus for our studies is the structure and function of the large bio-solar energy converters, Photosystem I, Photosystem II, and the ATP-Synthase, an enzyme that functions as a molecular motor. We also use time-resolved femtosecond nanocrystallography to determine a molecular movie of water splitting. Another exciting project deals with transport processes across membranes, with a special focus on transport into cell organelles. The work on important viral, bacterial and human membrane proteins is the focus of the ASU Center for Membrane Proteins in Infectious Diseases led by Petra Fromme. The center involves a collaboration of 11 groups at ASU. We have selected 50 target proteins, which play important roles in the infection cycle. The work involves new method development for expression, purification, biophysical characterization, crystallization and structure determination of the membrane proteins.

近期论文

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"High-Resolution Protein Structure Determination by Serial Femtosecond Crystallography," Boutet S, et al , Science online in Science Express May 31 2012 (2012) "Time-resolved protein nanocrystallography using an X-ray free-electron laser ," Aquila,A et al, Optics Express 20 (3) 2706-16 (2012) "In vivo protein crystallization opens new routes in structural biology ," Koopmann,R, et al , Nature Methods 9 (3) 259-263 (2012) "Femtosecond nanocrystallography using X-ray lasers for membrane protein structure determination," Fromme P, Spence JC, Curr Opin Struct Biol 21 509-516 (2011) "Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography ," Chapman HN, Fromme P, et al , Nature 470(7332) 73-81 (2011) "Dose, exposure time and resolution in serial X-ray crystallography," Starodub D, Rez P, Hembree G, Howells M, Shapiro D, Chapman HN, Fromme P,, J Synchrotron Radiat 15 62-73 (2008) "Flexible fitting of atomic structures into cryo-EM maps using constrained geometric simulations," Jolley CC, Wells SA, Fromme P, Thorpe MF , Biophysical Journal in press (2007) "Droplet streams for serial crystallography of proteins," U Weierstall, R B Doak, J C H Spence, D Starodub, D Shapiro, P Kennedy, J Warner,, Experiments in Fluids in press (2007) "Comparison of the light-harvesting networks of plant and cyanobacterial photosystem I," M.K. Sener, C. Jolley, A. Ben-Shem, P. Fromme, N. Nelson and K. Schulten, Biophys. J. 89 1630-1642 (2005) "Structure of cyanobacterial Photosystem I," I. Grotjohann and P. Fromme, Photosynthesis Research 85 51-72 (2005) "Structure of Plant Photosystem I revealed by Theoretical Modeling," C. Jolley, A. Ben-Shem, N. Nelson and P. Fromme, J. Biol. Chem. 280 33627-33636 (2005) "Evolution of Photosynthesis and oxygen evolution: Implications from the structural comparison of Photosystem I and II," I. Grotjohann, C. Jolley and P. Fromme, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 6 4743-4753 (2004) "Structure and function of photosystem I: interaction with its soluble electron carriers and external antenna systems ," P. Fromme, A. Melkozernov, P. Jordan and N. Krauss, FEBS Lett 555 40-44 (2003) "Structure and Function of the Antenna System in Photosystem I ," P. Fromme, E. Schlodder and S. Jansson, Light-Harvesting Antennas in Photosynthesis 253-279 (2003) "Robustness and Optimality of Light Harvesting in Cyanobacterial Photosystem I ," M.K. Sener, D. Lu, T. Ritz, S. Park, P. Fromme and K.J.J. Schulten, J Phys. Chem B 106 (32) 7948-7960 (2002) "Three-dimensional structure of cyanobacterial Photosystem I at 2.5 ? resolution," P. Jordan, P. Fromme, H.T. Witt, O. Klukas, W. Saenger and N. Krau?, Nature 411 909-917 (2001) "Crystal Structure of oxygen evolving Photosystem II from Synechococcus elongatus a 3.8 ? Resolution," A. Zouni, H.T. Witt, J. Kern, P. Fromme, N. Krau?, W. Saenger and P. Orth, Nature 739-743 (2001)