---
title: "X-ray Laser Reveals How Bacterial Protein Morphs In Response To Light"
description: "Researchers have captured the highest-resolution snapshots ever taken with an X-ray laser that show changes in a protein's structure over time, revealing how a key protein in a photosynthetic bacterium changes shape when hit by light."
date: "2014-12-05"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Christine Doan"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/christine_doan"
url: "https://futurism.com/x-ray-laser-reveals-bacterial-protein-morphs-response-light"
categories:
  - "Bacteria"
  - "Health & Medicine"
  - "Medical"
  - "Pathogens"
tags:
  - "biology"
---

# X-ray Laser Reveals How Bacterial Protein Morphs In Response To Light

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/141204160327-large.jpg>)

- This experiment marks the first time LCLS (Linac Coherent Light Source) has been used to directly observe a protein's structural change as it happens
- In the LCLS experiment, researchers prepared crystallized samples of the protein, and exposed the crystals, each about 2 millionths of a meter long, to blue laser light before jetting them into the LCLS X-ray beam
- Researchers compared the structures of the proteins that had been exposed to light to those that had not to identify light-induced structural changes.