Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Physics
Dynamics In Designed Elastins And Enzymes, Jonathan M. Preston
Dynamics In Designed Elastins And Enzymes, Jonathan M. Preston
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In this dissertation I present experimental results on the structure and dynamics of elastin, an elastomeric extracellular component in vertebrates that, in mammals, provides structure and elasticity to the circulatory system, lungs, skin and joints. These experiments, using a set of designed elastin like proteins with properties analogous to the natural protein, show that elastin is highly disordered and connect this disorder to its mechanism of assembly and elasticity. In addition, I also present preliminary work on imparting flexibility into a set of computationally designed metalloenzymes to broaden the range of catalytic activities they perform.