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

有了这个奖项，化学系的生命过程化学项目资助耶鲁大学的Corey J. Wilson教授对蛋白质介导的能量转导反应进行严格的研究。蛋白质系统中的能量转换过程可以通过“天线”分子吸收光子来启动，该“天线”分子将光能引导到激发电子态的实现中。激发电子的命运取决于许多因素，并且生产性反应通常导致通过蛋白质的电子转移或能量转移。这些反应对于生命过程如光合作用和细胞呼吸作用是必不可少的。因此，该项目的长期目标是利用合理的蛋白质设计方法来理解自然系统中控制能量转导的原理，这将使新型生物电子器件的开发成为可能（例如，作为下一代太阳能生产的商业用途的能量收集涂料）。这种追求将使研究生和本科生获得先进的计算建模和实验光化学方法的专业培训。 一个特别的努力willll将作出招募传统上在STEM代表性不足的群体的成员作为研究团队的一部分，这项研究将完成与使用计算建模和补充实验，以绘制电子转移与能量转移的耦合矩阵的作用之间的区别，并利用这些知识，在未来的工作中开发新的第二代设计的评分功能。工作假设是通过蛋白质的能量转导速率可以通过干预介质的策略性重新设计来控制，并且可以针对电子转移（EleT）或能量转移（EngT）反应进行优化。因此，该项目的目标是开发和实验测试计算设计策略，使我们能够通过对EleT和EngT反应进行区分的途径重新设计来控制能量转导的速率。 原则上，EleT电子耦合矩阵和EngT桥的修改可以导致能量转换速率的调谐和控制。

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.