Congratulations to
Cara Chester
Arts & Sciences
Biochemistry
Honors Thesis Faculty Advisor: Olga Makhlynets
Thesis Title:
De Novo Proteins Adopt Catalytic Function
The Makhlynets lab wanted to explore the contribution of metal in radical stabilization. In order to do so, UFsc, a single metal ion-binding protein, and 4G-UFsc, a mutant of UFsc created by introducing 4 mutations to widen the channel that leads to the metal center, were created. Based on results, the Makhlynets lab discovered that one metal ion is sufficient to fulfill the radical stabilization role in these designed de novo proteins. Mutations were then introduced to the binding pocket of UFsc and 4G-UFsc in order to establish coordination geometry. Experiments were run with various metals to identify whether ligand-metal coordination of these de novo proteins is dependent on the metal. In this work, we propose that the DFsc/UFsc family of proteins can be used as a model to study the mechanisms of metalloenzymes.
Links to Project Materials:
https://files.emailmeform.com/742180/07vPcQaw/Capstone%20Thesis%20%28Final%29.pdf