The utilization of biological affinity to effect a separation is the basis of a number of promising processes. A particularly attractive version of the affinity concept utilizes interactions between proteins and immobilized metals. The principal investigators propose a novel approach to the problem of protein purification based on their ability to engineer specific protein structures using genetic methods. They propose to demonstrate, using two proteins of very different surface properties and conformations, that specific metal binding sites can indeed be incorporated into proteins or attached as removable "tails" without loss of biological activity or folded structure. With this alteration, proteins can possibly be engineered for a single- step purification on metal-containing polymer matrices.
