The rational design of metalloproteins with desired functional properties has tremendous potential for biotechnological applications. We are using an algorithm-based methodology (DEZYMER) to design metal-binding sites into the green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a first step towards functional design. High resolution (1.4-0.8 E) structures only possible in collaboration with facilities such at SSRL are required for accurate characterization of designed metallomutants necessary for evaluation and improvement of the algorithm. We have already collected three data sets near atomic resolution (1.20-1.35) of GFP design intermediates and request time on beam line 9-1 or 7-1 to collect high resolution data on three GFP metal binding variants for full standard uncertainty analysis. These would be the first algorithm-designed metallomutant structures and would have a major impact in the protein engineering field.
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