title: Femtosecond nanocrystallography using X-ray lasers for membrane protein structure determination.
abstract: The invention of free electron X-ray lasers has opened a new era for membrane protein structure determination with the recent first proof-of-principle of the new concept of femtosecond nanocrystallography. Structure determination is based on thousands of diffraction snapshots that are collected on a fully hydrated stream of nanocrystals. This review provides a summary of the method and describes how femtosecond X-ray crystallography overcomes the radiation-damage problem in X-ray crystallography, avoids the need for growth and freezing of large single crystals while offering a new method for direct digital phase determination by making use of the fully coherent nature of the X-ray beam. We briefly review the possibilities for time-resolved crystallography, and the potential for making 'molecular movies' of membrane proteins at work.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1604, USA. pfromme@asu.edu
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fromme
authors.forename: John C H
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Spence
mesh_terms: D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007267:Injections; D007834:Lasers / Q000009:adverse effects; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins