University
of Illinois Professor Yi Lu, who led the research, said the synthetic
protein is both a structural model and a functional model of a native
protein -- nitric-oxide reductase.
Lu's research group, which includes lead author Natasha Yeung and
collaborators at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, says it is among
the first to design a protein that mimics both the structure and the
function of a metalloprotein -- a protein that contains a metal ion.
The National Institutes of Health funded the work, which appeared in the journal Nature's early online Nov. 26 issue.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
Post new comment