Monday, May 19, 2008
Student Union Building, Upper (Queensborough Community College)
363

An Odd Couple: A Designed Protein:Natural Protein Chimera

Jessica A. Norman, Andrew C. Mutter, and Ronald L. Koder. The City College of New York, New York, NY

Designed proteins capable of electron transfer are of interest as tools to accomplish many applications including industrial chemical applications, solar energy, and nanochemical therapeutic devices. However, these proteins require a source of electrons and interfacing them with the endogenous electron-providing proteins of a cell is a difficult task. To avoid this compatibility and stoichiometry problem, we take advantage of the natural catalytic function of phthalate dioxygenase reductase, a flavoprotein which transforms the paired reducing equivalents of NADH into sequential single electrons by fusing it to a de novo designed diheme helical bundle domain. This two-part module is intended for use in varied applications such as as a prodrug activating enzyme for cancer therapy or in solar energy conversion.