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Characterization of protein confinement in functionalized nanoporous supports


EMSL Project ID
25453

Abstract

One of the key fundamental scientific questions is how isolated proteins maintain their native active conformations in solution or in immobilization matrix. Molecular crowding and confinement theory and modeling efforts have predicted that: 1) a protein inside a confined space would be stabilized by some folding forces not present for proteins in bulk solutions; 2) peptide chain unfolding, which could result in protein denaturation, would be less likely to occur inside the confined space because of excluded volume. In fact, when proteins are "confined" inside a biological cell, they exhibit higher activity and stability. Based on our preliminary results,we propose that an appropriately functionalized nanoporous support (FNS) can function as a confinement space to enhance protein activity and stability. This proposal is to characterize of protein confinement in FNS use extensive EMSL's capabilities. Our specific aims are: (1) Characterization and imaging of FNS and the proteins physically entrapped/attached in FNS; (2)Characterization of the conformational changes of the proteins confined in FNS in comparison with the proteins free in solution.

Project Details

Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2007-05-31
End Date
2010-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Chenghong Lei
Institution
Guilin University of Technology

Team Members

Yuehua Yu
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Related Publications

Enzyme specific activity in functionalized nanoporous supports Chenghong Lei, Thereza A Soares, Yongsoon Shin, Jun Liu and Eric J Ackerman Received 19 October 2007, in final form 17 January 2008 Published 20 February 2 doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/19/12/125102
Synergetic Effects of Nanoporous Support and Urea on Enzyme Activity Chenghong Lei, Yongsoon Shin, Jun Liu, and Eric J. Ackerman Received February 1, 2007; Revised Manuscript Received February 19, 2007 March 7, 2007 | doi: 10.1021/nl070255b