Using surface enhanced ROA (SEROA), novel results are achieved by combining Raman optical activity (ROA) and resonance surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERRS), applied on myoglobin. The novelty of this work is in reporting for the first time on chiral results of a study performed on a protein at single molecule level. This work, using silver nanoparticles and a laser excitation of 532 nm, only became feasible when the concentrations of nanoparticles, aggregation agent NaCl and the studied molecule were optimized in a series of systematic optimization steps. The spectral analysis has shown that the SERS effect behaves accordingly, depending on the concentration ratio of each component, i.e., myoglobin, Ag colloids and NaCl. Consequently, it is shown here that the SERS intensity has its maximum at a certain concentration of these components, whereas below or above this value the intensity decreases. The optimization results can be considered as a completion of the hitherto known phenomenon 'dilution effect', which only takes account of higher concentrations. Furthermore, the optimization of the parameters seems to be necessary for a successful SEROA measurement, which enables chiral study of a protein at the single molecule level, in which the concentration and acquisition time are no longer an impediment.

The FemtoMAX beamline facilitates studies of the structural dynamics of materials. Such studies are of fundamental importance for key scientific problems related to programming materials using light, enabling new storage media and new manufacturing techniques, obtaining sustainable energy by mimicking photosynthesis, and gleaning insights into chemical and biological functional dynamics. The FemtoMAX beamline utilizes the MAX IV linear accelerator as an electron source. The photon bursts have a pulse length of 100 fs, which is on the timescale of molecular vibrations, and have wavelengths matching interatomic distances (Å ). The uniqueness of the beamline has called for special beamline components. This paper presents the beamline design including ultrasensitive X-ray beam-position monitors based on thin Ce:YAG screens, efficient harmonic separators and novel timing tools.

α-Helical coiled coil structures, which are noncovalently associated heptad repeat peptide sequences, are ubiquitous in nature. Similar amphipathic repeat sequences have also been found in helix-containing proteins and have played a central role in de novo design of proteins. In addition, they are promising tools for the construction of nanomaterials. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) has emerged as a new biophysical technique for elucidation of protein topology. Here, we describe a systematic study of the self-assembly of a small ensemble of coiled coil sequences using SAXS and analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), which was correlated with molecular dynamics simulations. Our results show that even minor sequence changes have an effect on the folding topology and the self-assembly and that these differences can be observed by a combination of AUC, SAXS, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. A small difference in these methods was observed, as SAXS for one peptide and revealed the presence of a population of longer aggregates, which was not observed by AUC.