Jonathan Worrall

How a protein repurposes vitamin B12 as a light sensor Intense, ultrashort X-ray pulses have been used to probe the extraordinary reactions that occur in a light-sensing receptor, resolving a biochemical conundrum.

Quite a bit of work to get this to publication... but here you go. #protein #dynamics 🧪

How a protein repurposes vitamin B12 as a light sensor www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Minimized sample consumption for time-resolved serial crystallography applied to the redox cycle of human NQO1 Communications Chemistry, Published online: 29 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s42004-026-01908-9Time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers is a powerful approach for studying macromolecular dynamics, but its widespread use is limited by high sample consumption. Here, the authors introduce a segmented-droplet mix-and-inject strategy at the European XFEL that reduces sample consumption by up to 97% while preserving the data quality required for time-resolved structural studies of the enzyme NQO1.

Just out: Minimized sample consumption for time-resolved serial crystallography applied to the redox cycle of human NQO1

Increasing X-ray energy improves data quality in serial crystallography Advanced serial crystallography utilizing high-energy X-rays enhances diffraction efficiency, data quality and structural resolution under room-temperature conditions.

Rare work related post.
Increasing X-ray energy improves data quality in serial #crystallography 🧪
journals.iucr.org/s/issues/202...

We have a fixed term beamline scientist post available at VMXi, Diamond. The successful applicant will join the team at a dedicated room temperature MX beamline and help with user experiments in fragment screening and time resolved serial crystallography.
vacancies.diamond.ac.uk/vacancy/beam...

Very cool structures, congrats to all! #microsky

Link seemed broken though so here's a working one:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Engineering the Electron Relay in [FeFe]-Hydrogenase Enhances Electrocatalytic H2 Evolution H2 is an ideal energy vector, but catalysts for its clean production from water are inefficient or expensive. [FeFe]-hydrogenases are the most active H2-converting catalysts in nature, using a unique ...

Vincent, Morra, and Rodríguez-Maciá demonstrate that truncating the electron transfer domain of [FeFe]-hydrogenase does *not* diminish their catalytic efficiency (via ACS Catalysis).
doi.org/10.1021/acsc...

I am very excited to share our new preprint - "A Zundel Ion in the Catalytic Proton Transfer Pathway of [FeFe]-Hydrogenase" - for which we revisited an older theory of ours, and came to surprising conclusions... 🧵
doi.org/10.26434/che...

Cellulose biosynthesis and function in Streptomyces Cellulose, a ubiquitous polysaccharide with critical roles in life, provides structural integrity to cells in plants and aids biofilm formation in many bacteria. Although bacterial cellulose biosynthe...

Cellulose biosynthesis and function in Streptomyces

@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social by Chennan Yang, @xiaobozhong.bsky.social and Dennis Claessen

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

wwPDB: Worldwide Protein Data Bank wwPDB: Worldwide Protein Data Bank

The effort adopts community tools like FindGeo (MetalPDB) and MetalCoord (CCP4).
Details and example files are available at wwPDB.org
.
For queries: info@wwpdb.org

Metalloproteins make up ~30% of the PDB archive.
To ensure FAIR data practices, wwPDB is remediating existing polyatomic metal-containing entries and CCDs — improving their chemical and coordination descriptions for better findability and reuse.

The cytochrome P450 decarboxylase from Staphylococcus aureus can produce a diene from a C18 monounsaturated fatty acid: A spectroscopic, structural and kinetic characterisation Certain members of the bacterial cytochrome P450 152 family (CYP152) are peroxygenases that catalyse the decarboxylation of fatty acids into terminal …

I enjoyed contributing to this article from the @jarworrall.bsky.social lab at the @universityofessex.bsky.social during a visit over their summer. A first foray for me into P450 peroxygenase fatty acid decarboxylases to make alkenes from fatty acids.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The cytochrome P450 decarboxylase from Staphylococcus aureus can produce a diene from a C18 monounsaturated fatty acid: A spectroscopic, structural and kinetic characterisation Certain members of the bacterial cytochrome P450 152 family (CYP152) are peroxygenases that catalyse the decarboxylation of fatty acids into terminal …

Our first foray into the P450 world. Thanks to @bellp450enzyme.bsky.social for sharpening our GC-MS skill set @jamesbirrell.bsky.social for the microwaves😃 and Lewis for persevering 🧪

Delightful combination of spectroscopies (electronic, microwave) and protein crystallography in @jarworrall.bsky.social's new paper on cytochrome P450 decarboxylase from Staphylococcus aureus 🤩
doi.org/10.1016/j.ji...

Solvent Channels and Electric Fields Guide Proton Delivery to the Active Site of Heme Peroxidases Electrostatic potential surfaces and electric field lines reveal that local fields guide proton delivery through multiple conserved solvent channels in heme peroxidases, enabling efficient access to ....

How do protons get delivered to the active site of heme peroxidases? A combination of solvent channels and electric fields, say @petermoody.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Recent paper showing the power of combining advanced structural biology with QM/MM simulations to understand a heme enzyme. Work between Diamond, STFC, Bristol and Essex. We present evidence for the presence of an unusual protein to heme cross-link.
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Time-resolved serial synchrotron and serial femtosecond crystallography of heme proteins using photocaged nitric oxide We demonstrate the application of a nitric oxide releasing photocage system for time-resolved serial crystallography studies of two heme containing proteins using a fixed target sample delivery system...

New paper describing use of photocaged nitric oxide for time resolved crystallography within fixed targets at XFEL and synchrotron - PhD work of Pete Smyth & Lewis Williams - great collaboration with @jarworrall.bsky.social, beamline I24 and SACLA. Funded by BBSRC
journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...

For those on #chemsky interested in metal binding peptides and enzyme mimics, check out our latest paper doi.org/10.1002/anie.... A huge thanks to all co-authors, in particular the amazing Enrico Falcone!

Serial femtosecond crystallography reveals protein dynamics in real time Proteins are constantly moving, but our structures of them are static. Clare Sansom talks to the researchers using free-electron lasers to make time-resolved structures

Exploring the 'jigglings and wigglings' that help explain what proteins are really up to – and it's anything but static.

We are delighted to confirm that the and Other Redox Metalloenzymes will take place from 26-30 July 2026 at the University of Leicester, UK.

Details of the conference, including regularly updated confirmed speakers, are available on our website (link in bio).

Scientists use bacteria to turn plastic waste into paracetamol Genetically modified E coli used to create painkillers from material produced from plastic bottles

Genetically modified E coli used to create painkillers from material produced from plastic bottles
www.theguardian.com/...

Enhanced intensity-based clustering of isomorphous multi-crystal data sets in the presence of subtle variations Bovine, porcine and human insulin data sets are isomorphous in terms of unit cell and symmetry. Through enhancements to the multi-crystal clustering methods in DIALS, species-pure data sets are automa...

Thrilled to have this work published! Thanks to some awesome teamwork, we've demonstrated improvements in multi-crystal data clustering by automatically separating 🐮🐷🧑‍🔬 #multicrystal #clustering #crystallography doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Out now in @chemicalscience.rsc.org:

We apply 2DIR spectroscopy to study [FeFe] hydrogenase for the first time. Check it out!

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Every year I co-organise a popular protein engineering workshop with @Biochemsoc.bsky.social - this year we will be in Birmingham 18-19 Nov. Booking hasn't opened yet but interest can be registered here. We had a wonderful group last year-join us! www.biochemistry.org/events-and-t...

Damage before destruction? X-ray-induced changes in single-pulse serial femtosecond crystallography Varied pulse-duration and pulse-intensity serial femtosecond crystallography data do not show significant signs of radiation damage under typical experimental conditions.

Our new paper exploring the effect of XFEL pulse length and pulse intensity on electron density maps of two radiation sensitive proteins. A great collaboration between Diamond, SwissFEL and University of Essex's Worrall group.
journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...

legobox set of I24 which accordi g to google is the worlds best tuneable microfocus mx beamline in the world

Participants in the annual serial crystallography workshop for graduates student some funded by our @wellcometrust.bsky.social PhD program have got homework to do in the evening time …. @diamondlightsource.bsky.social @instruct-eric.bsky.social

Big day today! Excited to share our new publication in @chemcomm.rsc.org about the formation of the very important hydride state in [FeFe] hydrogenases! Enjoy the reading! ☺️ pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis Streptomyces bacteria make diverse specialised metabolites that form the basis of ~55% of clinically used antibiotics. Despite this, only 3% of their encoded specialised metabolites have been matched ...

Redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis in Streptomyces.

Remarkable work led by @katienoble241.bsky.social and Rebecca Devine demonstrates why antibiotic biosynthesis is often switched on in solid cultures and off in liquid.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Important paper. This could be the missing link that mediates the effects of nitric oxide gas on sporulation and antibiotic production in Streptomyces species.

A winters morning at SACLA ❄️

Our editorial for the collection on microbial iron metabolism and iron-containing proteins is online now. Check it out! Great collaboration with my colleague Haichun Gao and Tobias Goris www.nature.com/articles/s42...