Physics (Internal)

"Simulating electron transfer in biomolecules: magnetosensing by cryptochromes"

This event is part of the Biophysics Seminars. 12:30PM.

Cryptochromes are a diverse class of flavoproteins involved in a variety of biological processes, e.g. circadian clock regulation, phototropism. An intriguing question concerning these protoreceptors is their possible involvement in a light-dependent magnetoreception in insects and animals. Using computational chemistry tools we explore the mechanism of cryptochromes’ photoactivation and analyze the effect of the Earth’s magnetic field on their photophysics. To this aim, we are interested in developing ab initio techniques for perturbative treatment of spin-spin, spin-orbit, and hyperfine interactions based on the EOM-CC family of methods.