I hold a Senior Lectureship within SBCS’ Mechanistic and Structural Biology Division. My research interests include the analysis of the three-dimensional structures of photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII), proteins that host the biological process that performs water-oxidising photosynthesis, as well as phytochromes, opsins and centrins. These structures were obtained by X-ray crystallography, a method which can provide detailed structural information, even for large complexes such as the two photosystems. This kind of information is essential to understand the function of individual protein subunits and how the physico-chemical properties of numerous cofactors are modulated by local protein environments.
In various collaborations with other scientists, my group is applying these crystallographic techniques to analyse mechanisms of regulation and assembly of many proteins. With the phytochromes, a class of photoreceptors found in photosynthetic organisms, but also in non-photosynthetic bacteria, their structure analysis (in different states of their photocycle) may contribute to our understanding of the molecular mechanism by which such a protein responds to input light signals.
Practical work is performed in a variety of buildings across the Mile End campus, primarily in The Joseph Priestley Building. I am also an Affiliate of Queen Mary's Photosynthesis Grouping. During the course of the academic year, my research investigations and broader biomedical, biochemical and structural biology teaching is given to Queen Mary’s enthusiastic undergraduate and postgraduate communities.
If you wish to enquire further, please do not hesitate to contact me :
n.krauss 'at' qmul.ac.uk
Norbert Krauß, Dr. rer. nat., Senior Lecturer, Structural Biology
Click here for a special presentation on The Photosystems! 
