The projects discussed in this proposal represent interdisciplinary work in the Department of Chemistry and other Departments at Iowa State University dealing with a common theme: the importance of protein structure and dynamics for protein function. The problem discussed in this proposal range from the assembly and folding of proteins, the structural role of proteins in determining efficient energy transfer among naturally occurring photosynthetic pigments, and the way in which proteins interact with surfaces. In order to address these representative problems, dedicated equipment is required. Because proteins are the central theme of proposal, instruments to synthesize and to purify long-chain peptides on a large scale and to characterize their structural integrity are requested. The carefully designed proteins will be subjected to studies described in the text that characterize their interactions with surfaces either by Fourier transform infrared and Raman techniques or that monitor their reactivity on time scales from hundreds of femotseconds to hundreds of nanoseconds by various time- resolved techniques.
