Film: Diving into the heart of the molecules of life

English version: https://youtu.be/GfOyZch6llo

Contact: Claude Sauter

Script: Claude Sauter

Direction: Dominique Sauter

Production: Dominique Sauter & Claude Sauter

Taking atomic snapshots is very important to biologists who want to understand the architecture of the macromolecules that make up our cells. However, these nano-objects are far too small to be observed with a microscope. This is why other methods such as X-ray crystallography are needed to provide accurate images at an atomic scale. This film, “Diving into the heart of the molecules of life,” follows the different steps of a crystallographic study and describes the work of researchers at CNRS (ARN laboratory, Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Cellulaire, Strasbourg), from the purification of a macromolecule from living cells, its crystallisation and the analysis of the crystals using synchrotron radiation, to the assembly of a three-dimensional image. This movie covers several aspects of scientists’ work which are not widely known: the cloning of biomolecules, the use of large instruments such as synchrotron X-ray sources, and 3D visualisation.