Award Details:
Award Type: Catalyst
Award #: C-065
Proposal Title: Spatiotemporal Control of Protein Function: Ligand-Dependent Activation of TEV Protease
PI(s): Howard Shuman (UChicago) and Heather Pinkett (NU)
Award Amount: $200,000.00
Application Cycle: Round 20 (Fall 2015)
Award Start Date: February 1, 2016
Award End Date: January 31, 2018
Abstract:
Protein complexes carry out essentially all activities of living cells. Although remarkable progress has been made in determining the three dimensional structures of individual proteins, the detailed structures of multi-protein complexes are much more difficult to unravel. Even more challenging is to find out which parts of complexes interact with one another while carrying out their function. The proposed work will develop a simple method to precisely cleave protein complexes with a “protease” that can be targeted to specific sites in protein complexes. The main goal of the proposed work is to develop new forms of the protease that can be turned on by the presence of a small molecule that stabilizes special mutant forms of the protease. This will provide a new method to study protein structure and function.