Protein Crystallization Induced by Ultra-short Pulse Laser(Papers presented at the Seminar, "Water movements and life activities")

Abstract

When a near-infrared femtosecond laser is focused in water, several kinds of nonlinear phenomena, such as shockwave emission and cavitation bubble generation, are induced at the laser focal point. We have succeeded to induce crystallization by leading these phenomena in a supersaturated solution of protein. The mechanism of the crystallization would be strongly related with conformation change of water molecule binding with protein. Here, I introduce nonlinear phenomena when the laser is focused on water and representative example of the laser-induced crystallization.