Junko Yano

Divisions

Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging

• Bioenergetics

Biography

Since 2015, Junko Yano has held leadership roles in the MBIB Division, first as head of the Bioenergetics Department, then as Deputy for Science, and most recently as interim Director. Yano is a senior scientist and has served as a member of the Lab Staff Committee since 2016 and the DOE Council on Chemical and Biochemical Sciences since 2015. She is a co-principal investigator of the multi-institutional Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), one of two projects in the Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub funded by the DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. Yano earned her doctorate in physical chemistry at Osaka University and came to the Lab as a postdoctoral fellow in 2001. Her research interests pertain to problems of importance in energy—particularly renewable energy sources. Her group uses X-ray spectroscopy and crystallography at X-ray free electron lasers and synchrotron facilities to understand biological and inorganic systems under functional conditions. They are studying how, during photosynthesis, plants use light to split water using a catalytic Mn4Ca cluster, converting light energy into chemical energy.

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.