Aihua Xie
Oklahoma State University
时间：2014年6月12日 10:00-12:00
地点：蒙民伟楼2505
Abstract:
Proteins are dynamic. The biological function of a protein, such as receptor activation in biological signaling, is carried out through a series of structural transformations. Lack of technology to detect functionally important structural motions of proteins hinders our understanding of protein functions. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are excellent tools for 3D structural determination of proteins in steady states. However, their applications to dynamic structures associated to protein functions are limited. In contrast, infrared structural biology, a powerful emerging technology, has excellent time resolution and high structural sensitivity. Thus it is ideally suitable to probe the functionally important structural motions of proteins, including proton transfer, hydrogen-bond dynamics, and protein quakes. I will show how quantum theory based computational studies are employed to develop a VSM database library that translates infrared vibrational signals into specific structural information. In addition, I will show that how time-resolved infrared structural biology is employed to study receptor activation in biological signaling.