Leone Lab develops ultrafast devices to explore vitamin D3, other molecules

Leone Lab works to develop new, advanced devices to better understand Vitamin D3 and other molecular structures

On a sunny day, energetic UVB photons hit a certain type of organic molecule, 7-dehydrocholesterol, in your skin. These molecules absorb the photons, causing a ring opening reaction that leads to the creation of vitamin D3. Thanks to recent research in the Leone lab, we are gaining new insights into how the ring-opening reaction takes place.

In order to better understand such reactions in real time, the Leone lab’s Andrew Attar andcolleagues are developing ultrafast spectroscopic devices that not only fit on a table top, butalso produce the hard-to-generate UVB photons that allow your skin to make vitamin D3.