The Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) has been in the limelight of biotechnological utility in recent years. It is an inherently fluorescent protein which has been used, among other things, to monitor the spatial and temporal dynamics of protein localization in chimera-construct-form. To better understand the spectral properties and to shed insight into how GFP could be engineered for particular biotechnological functions/assays, a program to study GFP through molecular dynamics simulations and state-of- the-art quantum chemistry calculations was initiated at UCSD. Now it is being continued on a collaborative basis. The computing and graphics facilities at the Computer Graphics Laboratory enable me to continue this collaboration, to view and analyze the results of ab initio quantum chemical calculations and trajectories of protein molecular dynamics simulations. Ultimately, we seek to understand the spectacular luminescent properties of GFP well enough to suggest, predict, and aid experimental design efforts. In particular, we would like to see if/how GFP can be exploited as a sensor for a variety of cellular conditions (e.g., pH, calcium concentration, ATP concentration, etc.).
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