Design of a Selective, Photo-Activatable de Novo Protein

H. Christopher Fry, Andreas Lehmann, Jeffery G. Saven, William F. DeGrado and Michael J. Therien

First example of a computationally de novo designed protein that binds selectively an emissive abiological chromohore. Design of de novo proteins that bind abiological cofactors provide a general strategy to build proteins that possess functions not seen in nature. In designed protein complexes containing abiological Zn-porphyrin cofactors, electron and energy transfer reactions can be light activated and novel nonlinear optical and photophysical properties can be controlled.