Dr. Volha Chukhutsina

Biography

Volha Chukhutsina is a biophysicist with strong expertise in optical spectroscopy, photosynthesis, and structural biology. She is fascinated by protein structures and the broad variety of photoadaptation strategies that photosynthesis undergoes in response to abiotic changes. After obtaining her MSc degree in physics from Belarusian State University in Minsk, Volha moved to the Netherlands to pursue her PhD in biophysics. As a PhD student, she participated in the FP7 Marie Curie network 'HARVEST' and worked at the Laboratory of Biophysics at Wageningen University. Her research focused on describing photoprotection and photoadaptation strategies in marine algae and cyanobacteria, employing ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy to follow processes on a picosecond timescale. Following her postdoctoral research with Prof. Roberta Croce, where she built a unique non-invasive picosecond spectroscopy setup for photosynthetic non-fluid samples, Volha transitioned into the field of structural biology. She was awarded the EMBO Long-Term Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to work with Prof. Jasper van Thor from February 2018 until October 2021, during which she established a research line focused on studying the light activation of the Orange Carotenoid Protein using advanced spectroscopic methods. In November 2021, Volha began her role as an Assistant Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, contributing to research in biophysics and photosynthesis. Her ongoing research describes biodiversity and photosynthetic responses to light and cold stress at both the organismal and molecular levels, utilizing a combination of time-resolved spectroscopy and structural biology techniques, especially emphasizing revolutionary serial X-ray crystallography.

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