Mike Hough
@mikehough.bsky.social
Structural biologist and beamline scientist at Diamond light source, Hon Prof @ University of Essex. Interested in room temperature macromolecular crystallography, serial and time resolved work - and metalloproteins.
We are recruiting for an exciting PDRA project in data analysis for serial crystallography, details here: nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A... Feel free to get in touch with any questions!
PDRA in Statistical Analysis of Serial Diffraction Data (11878)
nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com
We are hosting a serial crystallography workshop aimed at early career researchers at Diamond in September - have a look! This involves practical sessions as well as some introductory talks.
Serial Crystallography Workshop 2026 - - Diamond Light Source
A two-day workshop covering the basics of serial crystallography at Diamond including: sample preparation (focus on batch crystallisation) and characterisation, sample delivery methods, data collectio...
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New paper out on modulating redox states in heme peroxidases in synchrotron and XFEL experiments journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202... - nice collaboration with @jarworrall.bsky.social using PAL-FEL and DLS I24
Generation and modulation of catalytically relevant states of a dye-decolourizing peroxidase using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography with drop-on-chip mixing and X-ray-driven reduction
We characterize the formation of a ferryl state of a dye-decolourizing peroxidase by drop-on-chip serial femtosecond crystallography and also the modulation of the heme redox state using dose-resolved...
journals.iucr.org
An exciting PhD studentship available between the U. of Manchester (Sam Lay) and Diamond Light Source -an opportunity to work with experimental time-resolved structural biology and state-of-the-art computational simulations to gain a deep understandingf enzymes. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Understanding heme enzyme mechanism using dynamic, time resolved crystallography and QM/MM simulations at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Understanding heme enzyme mechanism using dynamic, time resolved crystallography and QM/MM simulations at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com
findaphd.com
New paper describing our time resolved SFX studies with spectroscopic validation through XES to propose new intermediates in heme peroxidases. A large team of researchers led by Essex and Diamond @jarworrall.bsky.social @diamondlightsource.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Can ferric-oxyl excited states explain elongated iron-oxygen bonds in heme peroxidase catalytic intermediates? - Nature Communications
Peroxidases have long been considered to use ferryl heme intermediates (Fe(IV) = O) to catalyze oxidative chemistries. Here, Williams et al. find that ferric-oxyl (FeIII–O•–) excited states exist alon...
nature.com
We have a fixed term beamline scientist post available at VMXi, Diamond. The successful applicant will join the team at a dedicated room temperature MX beamline and help with user experiments in fragment screening and time resolved serial crystallography. vacancies.diamond.ac.uk/vacancy/beam...
Beamline Scientist - VMXi (11779)
vacancies.diamond.ac.uk
Our new preprint showing preliminary results from our droplet on demand tape drive and XES spectrometer system at Diamond VMXi - applied to protein microcrystals including a copper enzyme eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...
Hundred-Picolitre Droplet on Demand Tape Drive and XES Prototypes for Time-Resolved Serial Crystallography at VMXi, Diamond Light Source
Time resolved X-ray crystallography is experiencing a resurgence in part because of serial methods that readily allow scientists to create stop-motion movies of macromolecular function of photoactivat...
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Recent paper showing the power of combining advanced structural biology with QM/MM simulations to understand a heme enzyme. Work between Diamond, STFC, Bristol and Essex. We present evidence for the presence of an unusual protein to heme cross-link. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
pubs.rsc.org
New paper describing use of photocaged nitric oxide for time resolved crystallography within fixed targets at XFEL and synchrotron - PhD work of Pete Smyth & Lewis Williams - great collaboration with @jarworrall.bsky.social, beamline I24 and SACLA. Funded by BBSRC journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...
Time-resolved serial synchrotron and serial femtosecond crystallography of heme proteins using photocaged nitric oxide
We demonstrate the application of a nitric oxide releasing photocage system for time-resolved serial crystallography studies of two heme containing proteins using a fixed target sample delivery system...
journals.iucr.org
Paper describing clustering methods to separate subtle structural differences in populations of protein crystals - with application to polymorphs, ligand binding.. - led by Amy Thompson @amyjayyyne.bsky.social with VMXi,I24 and Data Analysis at @ddiamond.bsky.social journals.iucr.org/d/issues/202...
Enhanced intensity-based clustering of isomorphous multi-crystal data sets in the presence of subtle variations
Bovine, porcine and human insulin data sets are isomorphous in terms of unit cell and symmetry. Through enhancements to the multi-crystal clustering methods in DIALS, species-pure data sets are automa...
journals.iucr.org
Our new paper exploring the effect of XFEL pulse length and pulse intensity on electron density maps of two radiation sensitive proteins. A great collaboration between Diamond, SwissFEL and University of Essex's Worrall group. journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...
Damage before destruction? X-ray-induced changes in single-pulse serial femtosecond crystallography
Varied pulse-duration and pulse-intensity serial femtosecond crystallography data do not show significant signs of radiation damage under typical experimental conditions.
journals.iucr.org
Nice to see our review on the fascinating cytochromes P460 and cytochromes c' - that use a similar and unusual structure to carry out very different functions out in JBIC. An idea for a mini review that expanded! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Cytochromes P460 and c′-β: exploiting a novel fold for multiple functions - JBIC Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry
Two related classes of ligand-binding heme c-containing proteins with a high degree of structural homology have been identified and characterized over recent decades: cytochromes P460 (cyts P460), def...
link.springer.com
Just getting started on blue sky - Using this mostly for work purposes, as a brief intro for people I don't already know - I'm a structural biologist at Diamond Light Source specialising in room temperature X-ray structures and serial crystallography at synchrotrons and XFELs