Junko Yano

Interim Division Director, Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

Bioenergetics

Building: 33, Room 344
Mail Stop: 33R0344
Phone: (510) 486-4366
http://www2.lbl.gov/vkyachan/

Research Interests

• Structure and function of active metal sites in metalloenzymes.
• X-ray crystallography and X-ray spectroscopy using an X-ray free electron laser.
• Application of X-ray-based techniques to artificial photosynthetic systems such as light-absorbers and catalysts to study electron transfer and catalytic reaction mechanisms in situ.
• Application of synchrotron X-ray absorption/diffraction methods for the analysis of molecular structures, crystal structures, and electronic structures of inorganic catalysts.
• Water oxidation reaction in natural photosynthesis
• Structure and function relationship using vibrational spectroscopy and EPR spectroscopy in organic/organometallic materials.

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New Device Advances Commercial Viability of Solar Fuels

December 17, 2021

A research team led by Francesca Toma, a staff scientist in the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) and Chemical Sciences Division (CSD), has developed an artificial photosynthesis device with remarkable stability and longevity as it converts sunlight and carbon dioxide into ethylene and hydrogen—two promising sources of renewable fuels. The team used electron microscopy at the Molecular Foundry and ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) at the Advanced Light Source to reveal how the device degrades with use, then demonstrate how to mitigate those processes.

Chloro-phylling in the Answers to Big Questions

December 1, 2021

A team of scientists, including many in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, uncovered new details about the reaction that powers photosynthesis. Understanding this reaction could lead to world-changing advances in technology, medicine, or energy––and also gives insight into how the enzyme photosystem II produces the oxygen we breathe. Their latest work was recently published in Nature Communications and two of the authors, Vittal Yachandra and Philipp Simon, spoke with Strategic Communications about that, shooting stuff with lasers, and why they chose this field of research.

New Technique Gets the Drop On Enzyme Reactions

October 21, 2021

As part of an international collaboration, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), the Diamond Light Source synchrotron facility, and Oxford and Bristol Universities in England have developed a novel sample delivery system that expands the limited toolkit for performing dynamic structural biology studies of enzyme catalysis, which have so far mostly been limited to a small number of light-driven enzymes.