Highlights

Penn MRSEC researchers, DeGrado, Klein, Saven and Wand are studying bundles of helical proteins (Top Figure: Typical 4-helix bundle with selected amino acid side chains E=Asp and H=His, highlighted in green –red and green-blue, respectively) that can bind metal atoms (Bottom Figure: Typical catalytic site with bound Zinc atoms - magenta) and perform the […]

Brownian motion, the tiny random movements of small objects suspended in a fluid, has served as a paradigm for concepts of randomness ranging from noise in light detectors to fluctuations in the stock market. Penn MRSEC researchers, Yodh, Lubensky and their collaborators, have used digital video microscopy to reveal for the first time the twisty […]

Bohdana Discher
Highly simplified de novo designed proteins, maquettes, offer new opportunities for the design of catalytic or photochemically active, electrochemically regulated, bioinspired nanomaterials. To achieve efficient charge separation for energy generation and storage, we have extended work done with overall hydrophilic (HP) a-helical bundles and developed a new amphiphilic (AP) maquette family that assembles within […]

Paul A. Heiney and Virgil Percec
Natural pore-forming proteins and their remodeled structures exhibit a diversity of biological and biologically inspired functions such as transmembrane channels, viral helical coats, reversible encapsulation, stochastic sensing, and pathogenic and antibiotic activity. Attempts to study synthetic porous protein mimics have been limited by the difficulty of forming periodically ordered structures […]