GOALI: Metal Complexes as Artificial Peptidases

爱荷华州州立大学的Nenad Kostic博士得到化学系无机、生物无机和有机化学项目和MPS多学科活动办公室的支持，根据与工业界学术联络的赠款机会（GOALI）计划，生产新的催化剂，旨在裂解蛋白质在特定的预定点沿着其分子骨架。新的金属复合物将被测试其分裂短人工蛋白质的能力，使用蛋白质的硫原子“锚”催化剂。将开发方法来抑制催化剂聚集和产物反应对有效催化的干扰。专门设计的蛋白质（和天然蛋白质的人工产生的变体）将用于研究几个层次的蛋白质结构对催化效率的影响。蛋白质折叠对催化裂解速率的影响将被研究。在预定的分子位置上裂解蛋白质分子的能力在生物技术中将是重要的，并将进一步了解复杂生物系统的功能。该计划将为重要的生物化学反应生产新的合成催化剂。这种人工酶的发现将有助于生物技术和药物生产，以及在发育生物学中控制遗传信息功能的实验。两家制药公司（BioNebraska和Merck）正在合作进行这项研究。研究生将在工业实验室接受最先进的质谱技术培训。

Dr. Nenad Kostic of Iowa State University is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division and the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, under the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) program to produce new catalysts designed to cleave proteins at specific predetermined points along their molecular backbone. New metal complexes will be tested for their ability to split short artificial proteins, using the proteins' sulfur atoms to "anchor" the catalyst. Methods will be developed to suppress interference with efficient catalysis by aggregation of the catalyst and by reactions of the products. Specifically designed proteins (and artificially produced variants of native proteins) will be used to investigate the influence of several levels of protein structure on the efficiency of catalysis. The influence of folding of the protein on the rate of catalytic cleavage will be examined.The ability to split protein molecules at predetermined molecular locations will be important in biotechnology, and in developing further understanding of the functioning of complex biological systems. This program will produce new synthetic catalysts for important biochemical reactions. Discovery of such artificial enzymes will be useful in biotechnology and in the production of pharmaceuticals, as well as in experiments leading to control of the functioning of genetic information in developmental biology. Two pharmaceutical companies (BioNebraska and Merck) are collaborating in this research. Graduate students will be trained in state-of-the-art mass spectrometry techniques in industrial laboratories.