The research will develop an approach to de novo protein synthesis which is based on the assembly of supersecondary structural motifs stabilized by the incorporation of specifically designed unnatural amino acid residues. Synthesis, incorporation and structural characterization of unnatural amino acid residues within polypeptides are crucial elements of the research. The residues will be used as the basis for constrained beta-type II reverse turns. Further, the unnatural amino acid residues should help in establishing beta-sheet stucture by providing a greater choice of beta-branched amino acid residues than that currently available. The research proposes utilization of supersecondary (rather than tertiary) structural elements as the basic building blocks in protein design to facilitate both predictive and analytical processes. Further functionalization of the unnatural residues can form the basis for the production of new regulatory or catalytic biopolymers. %%% With this award from the Synthetic Organic Program, Dr. Barbara Imperiali of the Department of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology will conduct research in the area of de novo protein synthesis. The research will focus on developing building blocks which can be assembled in a rational manner to afford proteinaceous products with a predetermined three-dimensional structure. Dr. Imperiali will use peptidyl compounds, based on unnatural amino acid residues, which can be used to build new proteins. Further functionalization of the unnatural residues can lead to the production of new regulatory or catalytic biopolymers.
