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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Using The Marcus Inverted Region And Artificial Cofactors To Create A Charge Separated State In De Novo Designed Proteins, Eskil Me Andersen
Using The Marcus Inverted Region And Artificial Cofactors To Create A Charge Separated State In De Novo Designed Proteins, Eskil Me Andersen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
To create an efficient de novo photosynthetic protein it is important to create long lived charge separated states. Achieving stable charge separation leads to an increase in the efficiency of the photosynthetic reaction which in turn leads to higher yields of end products, such as biofuels, electrical charge, or synthetic chemicals. In an attempt to create charge separated states in de novo proteins we hypothesized that we could engineer the free energy gaps in the proteins from excited primary donor (PD) to acceptor (A), and A back to ground state PD such that the forward electron transfer (ET) would be …
De Novo Design And Engineering Of Functional Metal And Porphyrin-Binding Protein Domains, Bernard Howard Everson
De Novo Design And Engineering Of Functional Metal And Porphyrin-Binding Protein Domains, Bernard Howard Everson
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In this work, I describe an approach to the rational, iterative design and characterization of two functional cofactor-binding protein domains. First, a hybrid computational/experimental method was developed with the aim of algorithmically generating a suite of porphyrin-binding protein sequences with minimal mutual sequence information. This method was explored by generating libraries of sequences, which were then expressed and evaluated for function. One successful sequence is shown to bind a variety of porphyrin-like cofactors, and exhibits light- activated electron transfer in mixed hemin:chlorin e6 and hemin:Zn(II)-protoporphyrin IX complexes. These results imply that many sophisticated functions such as cofactor binding and electron …
Design And Optimization Of A De Novo Protein Charge Separation Dyad, Andrew C. Mutter
Design And Optimization Of A De Novo Protein Charge Separation Dyad, Andrew C. Mutter
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The ever-increasing demand for cheap, plentiful energy to fuel the needs of a growing population requires research into alternative clean energy. Solar irradiation has the potential to power the planet many times over; the challenge is efficient capture and conversion of this energy source. Nature has already solved this problem with photosynthesis, which harvests solar irradiation converting it to stored chemical energy and is the source of the energy for life. The goal of my dissertation is to use de novo designed protein to mimic the charge separation system in photosynthesis. A stable protein scaffold will be designed and used …