Development of Far-Infrared Difference Spectroscopy For Studies of Biological Pigment-Protein Complexes

该奖项支持开发一种仪器，用于在1000-140厘米-1光谱区域内对生物色素-蛋白质复合体进行傅立叶变换红外(FTIR)差分光谱测量。目前，很少有仪器能对小于1000 cm-1的生物样品进行测量。灵敏度低于~1000厘米-1的仪器天生就很慢，测量通常会持续几天。在这里，将建造一台灵敏度低至~140厘米-1的仪器，数据采集速率至少比现有仪器高两个数量级。这样的仪器将使生物样品的远红外差异测量变得更简单。主要进展是在制造、测试和将新的快速和灵敏的远红外探测器纳入我们的FTIR仪器方面。将FTIR差分技术扩展到~140 cm-1是非常可取的，因为它将打开一个窗口，在那里可以直接研究金属与有机配体(Mn.O，Mg.N，Fe.N，Fe.S)之间的键，这是大量蛋白质辅因子的特征。

This award supports the development of an instrument for Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) difference spectroscopic measurement of biological pigment-protein complexes in the 1000-140 cm-1 spectral region. At present few instruments can perform measurements on biological samples below ~1000 cm-1. Instruments that do have sensitivity below ~1000 cm-1 are inherently slow, and measurements typically extend over several days. Here, an instrument will be constructed with sensitivity down to ~140 cm-1, with data acquisition rates at least two orders of magnitude superior to existing instruments. Such an instrument will make far-IR difference measurements of biological samples simpler. The main advance is in the fabrication, testing and incorporation of new fast and sensitive far-infrared detectors into our FTIR instrumentation. Extension of FTIR difference techniques down to ~140 cm-1 is highly desirable as it will open up a window where the bonds between metals and organic ligands (Mn.O, Mg.N, Fe.N, Fe.S), characteristic of a large number of the protein cofactors can be directly investigated.