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The Gibney Lab is exploring the coordination chemistry of heme cofactors in peptide and protein ligands - without the limitations imposed by biological constraints. These four-helix bundle heme protein maquettes, X-ray structure of one in the Figure, provide a unique opportunity to probe the thermodynamic, spectroscopic and electrochemical effects of non-natural amino acid ligands on cofactor chemical properties within a designed protein scaffold.
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Shown above is the X-ray structure of a four helix bundle scaffold for heme protein design. The bundle is composed to two identical disulfide bridged di-alpha helical subunits, i.e. (a-SS-a)2 (shown in blue and aqua).The Hg(II) ions (purple spheres) bind to the histidine residues designed to axially ligate the iron in heme. |
