Scientists from the Paul Scherrer Institute have succeeded for the first time in capturing images of a light-driven sodium pump from bacterial cells and documenting the molecular changes necessary for sodium transport. For the experiment, scientists used a method known as serial femtosecond crystallography. They hit the sample of a crystallized sodium pump with a laser and then used the new X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL for their research. Scientists hope that the study will open the doors for the development of new methods in neurobiology and hope to shed more light on how individual mutations can change the ion pumps.
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