Project Description
The objectives of this research is to develop a metallocofactor-scaffold system to study the effects of the peptide binding pocket on the cofactor. The scaffold serves as a highly tunable, stable host for the metallocofactor and has advantages not easily obtained using existing proteins such as increased stability and the felxabiklity to host a variety of cofactors for our longer term interests. The student will be trained in cofactor synthesis and docking into the scaffold followed by analysis of the complete system.
Tasks and Responsibilites
The student will express and purify the scaffold protein from E. coli using an existing expression system. Basic elements of the cofactor model have been worked out by a graduate student, so the task of the student will be to screen metals and look for successful constructs via spectroscopic characterization.