De Novo Design of Helical Electron Transfer Metalloproteins

普林斯顿大学化学系的George McLendon教授得到了美国国家科学基金会化学部无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目的支持，他的工作是开发一种通用的方案来合成具有最佳稳定性的从头蛋白质。将使用动力学惰性金属/配体系统，允许目标组件的逐步重新合成，并通过测量热力学折叠参数和大分子结构分析来研究设计。该方法将扩展到选择适合在体内表达的蛋白质。这项研究的结果将通过开发一种新的技术来更好地理解蛋白质的结构和折叠，这将使具有可预测功能的蛋白质的设计和表达成为可能。这项研究的结果将在工业过程中的催化和药物合成等领域产生广泛的社会影响。学生和博士后研究助理将在生物无机化学的一个新的发展领域接受出色的培训。

Prof. George McLendon of the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program of the Division of Chemistry, National Science Foundation, for his work on developing a general protocol to synthesize de novo proteins of optimal stability. Kinetically inert metal/ligand systems will be used that allow stepwise resynthesis of the target assembly, and investigate the design by measuring thermodynamic folding parameters and by macromolecular structural analysis. The approach will be extended to select proteins that lend themselves to in vivo expression. Results from this study will lead to a greater understanding of the protein structure and folding through development of a novel technology, which will allow the design and expression of proteins of predictable function. Results from this study will have a broad societal impact in such areas as catalysis in industrial processes and synthesis of drugs. Students and post-doctoral research associates will receive excellent training in a novel developing area of bioinorganic chemistry.