The effects of fluid flow on protein structure

各种物理和化学扰动通常用于探测蛋白质结构。机械扰动也被使用，并且特别具有信息性，因为它们可以允许修改蛋白质结构和功能所需的力被精确量化。我们将探索和发展一种新的机械扰动，流体流动湍流，并评估其在研究和控制蛋白质展开方面的适用性。湍流将在专门建造的流动细胞中被故意诱导，以引起几种测试蛋白质的展开，从而确定适合进一步研究的目标。蛋白质展开将使用拉曼光谱和拉曼光学活性进行表征，因为这些都是经过验证的信息技术。观察到的构象变化将与测量的流动参数相关联，以进一步改进流动池的设计。从这个开创性项目中获得的新信息中，我们希望评估这种方法在未来的可行性，并更专注于利用流动特性控制蛋白质结构的研究。

A variety of physical and chemical perturbations are routinely used to probe protein structure. Mechanical perturbations have also been used and are particularly informative as they can allow the forces required to modify protein structure and function to be accurately quantified. We will explore and develop a new mechanical perturbation, fluid-flow turbulence, and assess its applicability for studying, and controlling, protein unfolding.Turbulent flows will be deliberately induced in purpose-built flow cells to cause unfolding in several test proteins and so identify suitable targets for further study. Protein unfolding will be characterised using Raman spectroscopy and Raman optical activity, as these are proven and informative techniques. The observed conformational changes will be correlated with the measure flow parameters to further refine flow cell design. From the new information obtained in this pioneering project we hope to assess the viability of this approach for future, and more focused, studies of controlling protein structure using flow characteristics.