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

通过这一奖项，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了严格的研究。蛋白质系统中的能量传递过程可能是由“天线”分子吸收光子开始的，该分子将光能引导到激发的电子态。被激发的电子的命运取决于许多因素，而生产性反应通常会导致电子转移或通过蛋白质的能量转移。这些反应对光合作用和细胞呼吸等生命过程是必不可少的。因此，该项目的长期目标是利用合理的蛋白质设计方法来了解管理自然系统中能量传递的原理，这将使新型生物电子设备的开发成为可能(例如，用于商业用途的能量收集涂料，作为下一代太阳能生产)。这一追求将允许研究生和本科生获得高级计算建模和实验光化学方法方面的专门培训。将特别努力招募传统上在STEM中代表性较低的群体的成员作为研究团队的一部分。这项研究将通过使用计算建模和补充实验来区分耦合矩阵在电子转移和能量转移中的作用，并利用这一知识为未来的工作中的第二代设计开发新的评分函数。工作假设是，通过蛋白质的能量传递速率可以通过中间介质的战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，这个项目的目标是开发和实验测试计算设计策略，使我们能够通过重新设计不同的Elet和EngT反应的路径来控制能量转导的速度。原则上，对ELET电子耦合矩阵和EngT电桥的修改可以导致对能量传输速率的调谐和控制。

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.