ENGINEERING PHOTOSYNTHESIS - SYNTHETIC REDOX PROTEINS

The understanding of the principal parameters naturally selected to en gineer biological electron transfer systems has been combined with tec hniques of de novo design and chemical synthesis of peptides to initia te a program of synthesis of simple proteins equipped with multiple re dox cofactors. Our primary goal is to assemble functional redox protei n maquettes of the large, complicated natural proteins such as the pho tosynthetic reaction center. Attention is focused on strategies for en gineering and construction of well defined, stable four-helix bundles containing suitable redox cofactors optimized for efficient electron t ransfer.