UT Southwestern Medical

Without water, biomolecules cannot adopt the structures needed to function. Understanding this dependence requires detailed knowledge of water structure around biomolecules, which is a grand challenge in biophysical chemistry. In this presentation, I show how ultrafast vibrational chiral sum frequency generation spectroscopy (chiral SFG) meets this challenge. I demonstrate that chiral SFG exclusively detects the first hydration shell around biomolecules. Surprisingly, chiral SFG reveals that proteins and DNA organize their first hydration shells into chiral structures. This research suggests new implications for understanding and engineering molecular structures and interactions, as well as new perspectives on why biological life needs water and how water helped life to begin.

More information can be found in our recent article, "Detecting Interplay of Chirality, Water, and Interfaces for Elucidating Biological Functions (Accounts of Chemical Research, 2023)."