In the last century, immense progress has been made to charter and understand a wide range of biological phenomena. The origin of genetic inheritance was determined, showing that DNA holds genes that determine the architecture of proteins, utilized by the cell for most functions. Mapping of the human genome eventually revealed around 20000 genes, showing a vast complexity of biology at its most fundamental level.

To study the molecular structure, function and regulation of proteins, spectroscopic techniques and microscopy are employed. Until just over a decade ago, the determination of atomic detail of biomolecules like proteins was limited to those that were small or possible to crystallize. However recent technological advances in cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) now allows it to routinely reach resolutions where it can provide a wealth of new information on molecular biological phenomena by permitting new targets to be structurally characterized.

In cryo-EM, biological molecules are suspended in thin vitreous sheet of ice and imaged in projection. Collecting millions of such images permits the reconstruction of the original molecular structure, by appropriate alignment and averaging of the particle images. This however requires immense computational effort, which just a few years ago was prohibitive to full use of the image data.

In this thesis, I describe the development of fast algorithms for processing of cryo-EM data, utilizing GPUs by exposing the inherent parallelism of its alignment and classification. The acceleration of this processing has changed how biological research can utilize cryo-EM data. The drastically reduced processing time now allows more extensive processing, development of new and more demanding processing tools, and broader access to cryo-EM as a method for biological investigation. As an example of what is now possible, I show the processing of the fungal pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC), which poses unique processing challenges. Through extensive processing, new biological information can be inferred, reconciling numerous previous findings from biochemical research. The processing of PDC also exemplifies current limitations to established.

Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria convert light energy into chemical energy through the process of photosynthesis, fueling the planet and making life as we know it possible. Photosystem I (PSI) is one of the main photosynthetic complexes, responsible for this process. PSI uses the energy of light to transfer electrons from the soluble electron carrier plastocyanin, on the lumenal site of the thylakoid membrane, to ferrodoxin, on the stromal site of the membrane. Thus, playing a key role in the light dependent reactions. In order to survive many photosynthetic organisms need to be able to adapt to fluctuations in light and have adapted their photosynthetic machinery accordingly. In recent years many advances have been made in electron cryo-microscopy, making it possible to visualize many previously elusive photosynthetic complexes. This has brought a wealth of information on the structural adaptations of PSI.

In plants and algae, PSI is hosted by the chloroplast, a specialized organelle that houses the photosynthetic reactions. In the chloroplast, key components of PSI are synthesized by the chloroplasts own translation machinery: the chloroplast ribosome. Translation in the chloroplast is remarkable as it has to synchronize translation in two different genetic compartments as well as adapt to fluctuations in light. A glimpse of how this machinery has evolved to be able to fulfill all of these duties can be obtained from its three dimensional structure and its chloroplast specific features. However, despite all this structural information providing valuable clues as to the functioning of these systems, there are still many aspects of how they play a role that still remain unknown.