Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/K006630/1
Title:	Do you need a protein for efficient photochemistry?
Principal Investigator:	Fletcher, Professor SP
Other Investigators:	Kukura, Professor P
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Oxford Chemistry
Organisation:	University of Oxford
Scheme:	Standard Research
Starts:	18 February 2013	Ends:	17 February 2016	Value (£):	669,339
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Chemical Biology Physical Organic Chemistry
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 25 Jul 2012 EPSRC Physical Sciences Chemistry - July 2012 Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
Some of the most essential processes in nature and for todays society and economy rely on the efficient interaction between light and matter. They range from photolithography used to create processors for todays computing needs to fundamental processes in nature, such as photosynthesis and vision. The latter exhibit a level of reactivity and speed that researchers have struggled for decades to recreate and understand in the laboratory. A case in point is the primary event in vision, the cis-trans isomerisation of the retinal chromophore in the visual pigment rhodopsin. This reaction is superbly fast and efficient when taking place inside the protein. 11-cis retinal in solution, however, reacts very slowly and inefficiently. The goal of our research is to unravel the source of the additional reactivity inside the protein. We have recently demonstrated for the first time, that a very minor chemical change to the retinal molecule can induce dynamics in solution that are comparable to those found in an evolution-optimised protein environment. The goal now is to systematically map the photochemical consequences of a series of potentially influential modifications to the molecule. The ultimate aim of this work is not only to reproduce the reactivity found in nature, but, more importantly, use the lessons learned in the design process to establish fundamental rules for what makes a light-induced process efficient and how it can be tuned rationally. These results will find applications in exactly those types of processes that have motivated the work in the first place: conversion of light into chemical energy for future alternative energy applications and the development of perfectly controllable molecular switches.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.ox.ac.uk