George Barany, Principal Investigator

Design and Characterization of Biomolecules: From Protein Core Modules to Cyclic Peptic Nucleic Acid

These researchers studied the engineering of stable, folded, and functional biomolecules, and were particularly interested in the design, synthesis, and characterization of protein core modules and cyclic peptic nucleic acid (PNA).

In globular proteins, core motifs can be identified and their elements combined in suitable peptides to construct native-like modules. The designed peptides consist of core elements from bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) and/or B1 immuno-globulin binding domain (GB1) linked by natural or designed sequences, and they contain a strategically placed crosslink to limit conformational space to more collapsed conformations. The studies carried out by these researchers exemplified new approaches to the protein folding problem.

Cyclic PNAs are promising candidates for generating nanotubular structures. Such nanotubular reagents can be useful as new catalysts, wire conductors, or drug transport systems. Cyclic PNAs were designed by means of molecular modeling studies that assess the viability of cyclization, as well as the molecular recognition mechanism between cyclic units.

Design and characterization studies in this field are computationally intensive, thus requiring the resources of the Supercomputing Institute. Once the designed molecules are synthesized, they are the subjects of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic studies, from which structural features can be calculated.

Research Group and Collaborator

Yvonne Angell, Research Associate
Tracy Baas, Research Associate
Natalia Carulla, Graduate Student Researcher
Christopher Gross, Graduate Student Researcher
Marta Planas, Facultat de Ciencies, Universitat de Girona, Campus Montilion, Girona, Spain
Judit Tulla Puche, Graduate Student Researcher
Jaya Varkey, Research Associate