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Research into the antenna chlorophyll a molecules of photosystem I of green plants and cyanobacteria that absorb further to the red than P700 is presented. It is suggested that the 714 nm antenna state is responsible for the fluorescence origin band near 720 nm.

The three lowest Qy-states of Chlorobium tepidum's Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) bacteriochlorophyll alpha antenna complex lie at 823, 825 and 827 nm. This was gleaned from a study of the said states, which presented temperature-dependent spectral hole burning results. Results further indicated that the three lowest Qy-states were associated with the lowest energy state of the subunit of the FMO trimer. The study validated earlier findings by pump-probe experiments that there exists a lifetime of 2 ns for the 827 nm state in the low-temperature limit.

A study was conducted to analyze low-temperature absorption, fluorescence and persistent hole-burned spectra of aggregates of the trimeric light-harvesting antenna complex of photosystem II (LHC II). LHC II preparations were carried out by solubilization of salt washed PS II membrane fragments. Results led to the development of a framework that qualitatively accounts for the strong temperature dependence of aggregation-induced fluorescence quenching between 4.2 and 80 K.

A study on the aluminum phthalocyanine tetrasulfonate in MCF-10F (normal) and MCF-7 (cancer) cells using Stark hole burning spectroscopy is described. Results reveal that laser polarization parallel and perpendicular to an applied electric field causes the hole widening for zero-phonon holes fort both cell lines. Moreover, changes in dipole moment indicate that dye molecules are situated near the cell membrane and that in normal cells they undergo some degree of ordering not found in cancer cells.

The issues related to whether the primary charge seperation kinetics at low temperatures are highly dispersive, as proposed by Prokhorenko and Holzwarth and the nature of the weak lowest-energy Qy absorption band at ~684 nm that appears as a shoulder on the intense primary electron donor band are discussed.

Triplet bottleneck hole-burning experiments are conducted, along with their results presented. This experiment is carried out to understand the temperature dependence and this needs a reliable value for the rate at liquid helium temperatures.

The results of spectral hole burning experiments performed at liquid helium temperatures are presented, which are mainly designated to identify and characterize the two lowest energy Qy-states of CP43 and to determine the kinetics of excitation energy transfer (EET) between them. Two quasi-degenerate trap states at 682.9 nm (B state) and 683.3 nm (A state) are identified.

Burn wavelength (alpha beta) dependent nonphotochemical hole spectra are reported for the lowest energy Q (sub y)-absorption band of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) trimer complex from Prosthecochloris aestuarii. The Huang-Rhys (S) factor for all modes is determined.

Low-temperature absorption and persistent nonphotochemical hole burning experiments have been undertaken on wild-type (WT) trime and WT monomer of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis and its F, K, L and M mutants. It was found that there are red Chls absorbing at 714 nm which were not resolved in previous low-temperature experiments.

Issues concerning 4.2 K hole burning, chemical reduction and oxidation experiments on the isolated photosystem II reaction centre containing five chlorophyll molecules are discussed. These findings offer no support for the multimer model.

A study was conducted to analyze the isolated chlorophyll alb light-harvesting II trimer antenna complex of green plants. Nonphotochemical hole burning and pressure-dependent absorption experiments were performed. The premise that the energy states were associated with the lowest energy state of the trimer subunit was examined. Results indicated that a low linear pressure shift rate for the main energy states-absorption bands.

The light harvesting 1 (LH1) antenna complex of wild-type chromatophores and a LH1-only mutant of Rhodobacter sphaeroides was examined by combining spectral hole-burning and absorption spectroscopies with pressure and temperature. Results showed that large pressure shifts is mainly due to the electron exchange couplings between neighboring BChl a molecules of the LH1 ring. The temperature-dependent studies showed that the structure of the LH1 complex undergoes a change at 150 K.

The dipole moment changes for the B800 absorption band of the light harvesting 2 complex of Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Rhodopseudomonas acidophila and Rhodospirillum molischianum were investigated using Stark hole-burning spectroscopy at 1.8 K. The results were compared with those obtained through the classical modulation spectroscopy. The dipole moment values from the two techniques were different, the most notable of which are between the B850 and B875 bands.

The probiotic L. plantarum strain TENSIA (DSM 21380) is a novel microorganism having antimicrobial and antihypertensive properties. The aim of the study was to test the efficacy of the consumption of the cheese, comprising the novel strain TENSIA on multiple health markers of humans. Human intervention trial showed that the blood pressure lowering effect of cheese, comprising L. plantarum TENSIA was evident in healthy volunteers with high normal blood pressure up to normal values. The 3-week consumption of the prohiotic cheese did not increase the CVD risk factors like BMI, the level of plasma lipids and glucose as well as inflammatory and immunological markers of human body.