We postulate that light can modulate the function of biomolecules and chemical reactions and therefore we can contribute with new knowledge about the function of medically relevant proteins. We have been able of predicting and modulating light induced events in biomolecules, in particular that with UV light we can open particular chemical bonds in proteins and that process lasting ps are involved. New competences and optical methodologies developed in our group have lead to the development of biosensor technologies: Light is presently being used for the immobilisation of biomolecules on surfaces aiming at the development of multisensor protein arrays (medically and industrially relevant proteins), capable of detecting a multitude of metabolites at the same time.

 See link to our Venture Company BioNanoPhotonics A/S

Ultrafast Spectroscopy

Part of the new instrumentation consists of a pulsed fs laser. Biomolecular reactions triggered by this light pulses can be monitored both in the ps timescale with our new streak camera that can record spectra with a time resolution of 2 ps. To the right can be see the fluorescence decay from a particular sensor molecule which fully decays 2ns after UV excitation.

Figure to the right - Time and wavelength resolved fluorescence decay upon UV excitation of a protein, obtained by using our new laser system coupled to a streak camera. Time 0 is the time of UV excitation. After that we see the fluorescence decay at different wavelengths (depicted here as points) and at different times after excitation.

Femtosecond Amplified Laser System

Single Photon Counting Area Studies with Streak Camera

             Millenia 5W

             Tsunami fs broad band optics (700-1050nm), 80MHz

             Pulse picker

Doubler and Tripler Unit – SGU that will give us the UV light needed for protein excitation

Oriel Spectrograph

Streak Camera with 2 ps temporal resolution from Optronis

Pump-Probe Femtobiology studies Area

             Millenia 5W (same unit as above)

             Tsunami fs broad band optics (700-1050nm), 80MHz

             1mJ Spitifire Amplifier Unit

Two OPAs from Light Conversion – TOPAS White producing fs pulses from 245nm continuously to the IR region)

Delay line with fs resolution

Helios transient absortption setup and Detector

Click hereto see our pump-probe setup

Microarray Scaner - Laser Scanner from Tecan, 5 micrometer resolution

 

Microarray Incubation and Wash Stage from Perkin Elmer (temperature controlled, programable)

 

Confocal Fluorescence microscope - Confocal Leica TCS SP5 X

 

Fluorescence Correlation Specroscopy - Leica

 

 

Fluorescence Spectroscopy:

Steady-State Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy (ns timescale, N2 laser)

 

 

Singlet Oxygen Detector

Steady state and time-resolved singlet oxygen detector

 

 

TIRF - Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Click here for TIRF principle.

Click here for TIRF presentation.

 

 

Infrared-Spectroscopy - Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transformed Infra-Red Spectroscopy (nsec timeresolved)

 

Bruker IFS 66V/S

Infrared spectroscopy is available in the mid-infrared range (4000-400 cm-1) with a Bruker IFS 66V/S FTIR spectrometer. Both a DTGS- and a MCT-detector are installed. For sampling solids and films we have ATR units (Ge and ZnSe), and  for sampling gases and liquids we have a Transmission unit (CaF2).

 

 

Circular Dichroism - The CD instrument we have in our lab is a Jasco-J715, equipped with a peltier cell sample holder, enabling us to do temperature ramp scans in the temperature range between 4-90 degC.

 

 

Calorimetry – Differencial Scanning Calorimetry, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry

 Differencial Scanning Calorimetry  - We have 2 VP-DSC instruments in our lab, capable of temperature scanning. The temperature range of the instruments is between 4-120 degC, which is ideal for aqueous solutions.

 

Isothermal Titration Calorimetry - We have one ITC instrument in our lab from microcal. It allows us to measure binding enthalpies and calculate the binding constants from the experiments.

 

AFM – Atomic Force Microscopy

 

 

Plasmonic Setup

 

 

Dynamic Light Scattering

I our lab wne have a DynaProLS instrument from Protein Solutions, which is also capable of temperature control in the temperature range between 4-80 degC. This allows for very precise particle measurements up to the range of 1 micrometer. 

 

 

Molecular Modelling

We have a molecular modelling laboratory equipped with a 24 RISC processor SGI system

 

 

NMR spectroscopy

We have access to 600 MHz NMR