The perceived toxicity of organometallic reagents has limited their use in living systems. Now it has been shown that balancing flexible chelation with biocompatible ligands without precluding chemica...

In this Tools of the Trade article, Yi and Mamalis (Gilbert and Davis labs) discuss the development of Di-Gembodies, innovative constructs designed to overcome key challenges in applying cryo-electron...

Intersystem crossing (ISC) is a central nonradiative pathway in transition-metal complexes, critically shaping their behavior in photocatalysis and optoelectronics. In 3d metal systems, ligand-field (LF, d–d) excited states are especially important, yet the mechanisms governing their ISC remain obscure because LF transitions are commonly masked by intense metal-to-ligand charge-transfer (MLCT) bands. This knowledge gap is significant, as LF states frequently participate in deactivation channels and directly influence the photochemical reactivity. Here, we focus on unraveling the ultrafast ISC dynamics in a carefully chosen model system with a simplified electronic structure: cobalt(III)-acetylacetonate, ([Co(acac)3]), a d6 low-spin complex. Upon selective 1A1 → 1T1 ligand-field excitation promoting a t2g → eg * electron, heterodyne-detected transient grating measurements with ∼10 fs pulses reveal vibrational coherences decaying in ∼50 fs, matching ISC dynamics. Fourier analysis reveals both low- and high-frequency vibrational modes associated with Co–O stretching and Co–O–C bending that actively mediate the spin-state transition. Complementary two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) disentangles overlapping signals and localizes vibrational activity near the 1T1 excited-state absorption. Density functional theory (DFT) and GPU-accelerated hierarchy equation of motion (HEOM) calculations confirm that vibronic coupling, in concert with spin–orbit coupling (SOC), enables rapid singlet-to-triplet conversion via dynamic modulation of excited-state energies and reorganization along key nuclear coordinates. These results reveal that following LF excitation vibronic coupling plays an important role in reshaping excited-state potential energy surfaces and facilitating ISC in systems where SOC alone is weak. This work establishes a mechanistic foundation for understanding and controlling excited-state pathways in LF-dominated 3d transition-metal complexes.

Design of modular, transferable protein assemblies has broad applicability and in structural biology could help with the ever-troublesome crystallization bottleneck, including finding robustly behaved...

Proteins exist in multiple conformations or states, often associated with different functional capacities. The ability to selectively identify and study these states is crucial for under-standing the ...

Disulfide-based dimerization of modified identical and heterologous nanobody scaffolds enables higher-order assembly for high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure determination that is widely...

In attempting to observe the behaviour of a protein of interest in vivo, akin to other observer effects, current techniques require modifications or interventions that inherently alter the protein or ...

The authors develop a computational tool to design NMR pulses, based on the GRadient Assisted Pulse Engineering approach, that can calculate optimal pulse shapes on the fly during the measurements, to...

A defining feature of Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is the incorporation of the NSs protein into large filamentous assemblies inside infected nuclei [1][1], as judged from fixed specimens. To gain in...

N-Hydroxysuccinimide (NHS)-ester derivatives are one of the most widely used acylating agents. In this work, the authors report that ring-opening reaction of the succinimide to afford N-succinamide de...

Uechi et al. found that a small-molecule lipoamide dissolves stress granules (SGs) by targeting SFPQ, a redox-sensitive disordered SG protein, alleviating pathological phenotypes caused by amyotrophic...

A sunlight-activated chemical spray increases wheat yield in field trials across rainfall conditions.

A novel biostimulant could deliver increased wheat yields of up to 12%, according to researchers from Oxford University, Rothamsted, and the Rosalind Franklin Institute in a long-term study published

New community food strategy for Wales.

The neurofilament light chain protein (NfL) is a suggested general marker for neuronal loss. Its release from brain parenchyma into cerebral spinal fluid, and presumed detection in blood has seen it e...

Protein N-glycosylation is a cotranslational modification that takes place in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Disruption of this process can result in accumulation of misfolded proteins, known as ER s...

The enterobacterial common antigen (ECA) is conserved in Gram-negative bacteria of the Enterobacterales order although its function is debated. ECA biogenesis depends on the Wzx/Wzy-dependent strategy...