Biomolecular structures from few photons single molecule x-ray diffraction data (B04)

• Subject Area: Biophysics
• Term: from 2007 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 28586557

Our long-term goal is to extract as much as possible structural information from x-ray diffraction experiments with ultra-short pulses of single macro-molecules at Free Elecotron Laser (FEL, DESY and SLAC) sources, to set the foundations of such atomistic interpretation. The major challenge will be to use diffraction data with only a few tens of detected photons per image, rendering common methods unusable in such very low signal-to-noise situations; in addition, the varying orientation of the unknown molecule is unknown and has to be reconstructed as well. We will build up on results from the second funding period, and will re-fine correlation based and Bayesian methods, that will be implemented and tested to tap the full potential of these experiments.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 755: Nanoscale Photonic Imaging
• Applicant Institution: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Gerrit Groenhof, until 2/2013; Professor Dr. Helmut Grubmüller