Controlling the flow of energy transduction through a protein medium via rational design

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With this award, the Chemistry of Life Processes Program in the Chemistry Division is funding Professor Corey J. Wilson of Yale University to conduct a rigorous study of protein-mediated energy transduction reactions. The process of energy transduction in protein systems is may be initiated by absorption of a photon by an "antenna" molecule, that channels that light energy into the attainment of an excited electronic state. The fate of the excited electron depends on a number of factors and productive reactions typically result in electron transfer or energy transfer through the protein. These reactions are essential to life-processes such as photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Accordingly, the long-term goal of this project is to leverage rational protein design methods to understand the principles that govern energy transduction in natural systems, which will enable the development of novel bio-electronic devices (e.g., energy harvesting paints for commercial uses as next generation solar energy production). This pursuit will allow graduate and undergraduate students to acquire specialized training both in advanced computational modeling and experimental photochemical methods. A particular effort willl be made to recruit members of groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM as part of the research team.This study will be accomplished with the use computational modeling and complementary experimentation to draw distinctions between the role of the coupling matrix in electron transfer versus energy transfer and to leverage this knowledge to develop new scoring functions for second generation designs in future work. The working hypothesis is the rate of energy transduction through a protein can be controlled via the strategic redesign of the intervening medium and can be optimized for electron transfer (EleT) or energy transfer (EngT) reactions. Accordingly, the goal of this project is to develop and experimentally test computational design strategies that will enable us to control the rate of energy transduction via pathway redesign with distinction for EleT and EngT reactions. In principle, modification of the EleT electronic coupling matrix and EngT bridge can result in tuning of and control over the rate of energy transduction.