Matching Items (19)
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- All Subjects: Chemistry
- Creators: Ghirlanda, Giovanna
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
ABSTRACT Peptide microarrays may prove to be a powerful tool for proteomics research and clinical diagnosis applications. Fodor et al. and Maurer et al. have shown proof-of-concept methods of light- and electrochemically-directed peptide microarray fabrication on glass and semiconductor microchips respectively. In this work, peptide microarray fabrication based on the abovementioned techniques were optimized. In addition, MALDI mass spectrometry based peptide synthesis characterization on semiconductor microchips was developed and novel applications of a CombiMatrix (CBMX) platform for electrochemically controlled synthesis were explored. We have investigated performance of 2-(2-nitrophenyl)propoxycarbonyl (NPPOC) derivatives as photo-labile protecting group. Specifically, influence of substituents on 4 and 5 positions of phenyl ring of NPPOC group on the rate of photolysis and the yield of the amine was investigated. The results indicated that substituents capable of forming a π-network with the nitro group enhanced the rate of photolysis and yield. Once such properly substituted NPPOC groups were used, the rate of photolysis/yield depended on the nature of protected amino group indicating that a different chemical step during the photo-cleavage process became the rate limiting step. We also focused on electrochemically-directed parallel synthesis of high-density peptide microarrays using the CBMX technology referred to above which uses electrochemically generated acids to perform patterned chemistry. Several issues related to peptide synthesis on the CBMX platform were studied and optimized, with emphasis placed on the reactions of electro-generated acids during the deprotection step of peptide synthesis. We have developed a MALDI mass spectrometry based method to determine the chemical composition of microarray synthesis, directly on the feature. This method utilizes non-diffusional chemical cleavage from the surface, thereby making the chemical characterization of high-density microarray features simple, accurate, and amenable to high-throughput. CBMX Corp. has developed a microarray reader which is based on electro-chemical detection of redox chemical species. Several parameters of the instrument were studied and optimized and novel redox applications of peptide microarrays on CBMX platform were also investigated using the instrument. These include (i) a search of metal binding catalytic peptides to reduce overpotential associated with water oxidation reaction and (ii) an immobilization of peptide microarrays using electro-polymerized polypyrrole.
ContributorsKumar, Pallav (Author) / Woodbury, Neal (Thesis advisor) / Allen, James (Committee member) / Johnston, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The utilization of solar energy requires an efficient means of its storage as fuel. In bio-inspired artificial photosynthesis, light energy can be used to drive water oxidation, but catalysts that produce molecular oxygen from water are required. This dissertation demonstrates a novel complex utilizing earth-abundant Ni in combination with glycine as an efficient catalyst with a modest overpotential of 0.475 ± 0.005 V for a current density of 1 mA/cm2 at pH 11. The production of molecular oxygen at a high potential was verified by measurement of the change in oxygen concentration, yielding a Faradaic efficiency of 60 ± 5%. This Ni species can achieve a current density of 4 mA/cm2 that persists for at least 10 hours. Based upon the observed pH dependence of the current amplitude and oxidation/reduction peaks, the catalysis is an electron-proton coupled process. In addition, to investigate the binding of divalent metals to proteins, four peptides were designed and synthesized with carboxylate and histidine ligands. The binding of the metals was characterized by monitoring the metal-induced changes in circular dichroism spectra. Cyclic voltammetry demonstrated that bound copper underwent a Cu(I)/Cu(II) oxidation/reduction change at a potential of approximately 0.32 V in a quasi-reversible process. The relative binding affinity of Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) to the peptides is correlated with the stability constants of the Irving-Williams series for divalent metal ions. A potential application of these complexes of transition metals with amino acids or peptides is in the development of artificial photosynthetic cells.
ContributorsWang, Dong (Author) / Allen, James P. (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Redding, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Natural hydrogenases catalyze the reduction of protons to molecular hydrogen reversibly under mild conditions; these enzymes have an unusual active site architecture, in which a diiron site is connected to a cubane type [4Fe-4S] cluster. Due to the relevance of this reaction to energy production, and in particular to sustainable fuel production, there have been substantial amount of research focused on developing biomimetic organometallic models. However, most of these organometallic complexes cannot revisit the structural and functional fine-tuning provided by the protein matrix as seen in the natural enzyme. The goal of this thesis is to build a protein based functional mimic of [Fe-Fe] hydrogenases. I used a 'retrosynthetic' approach that separates out two functional aspects of the natural enzyme. First, I built an artificial electron transfer domain by engineering two [4Fe-4S] cluster binding sites into an existing protein, DSD, which is a de novo designed domain swapped dimer. The resulting protein, DSD-bis[4Fe-4S], contains two clusters at a distance of 36 Å . I then varied distance between two clusters using vertical translation along the axis of the coiled coil; the resulting protein demonstrates efficient electron transfer to/from redox sites. Second, I built simple, functional artificial hydrogenases by using an artificial amino acid comprising a 1,3 dithiol moiety to anchor a biomimetic [Fe-Fe] active site within the protein scaffold Correct incorporation of the cluster into a model helical peptide was verified by UV-Vis, FTIR, ESI-MS and CD spectroscopy. This synthetic strategy is extended to the de novo design of more complex protein architectures, four-helix bundles that host the di-iron cluster within the hydrophobic core. In a separate approach, I developed a generalizable strategy to introduce organometallic catalytic sites into a protein scaffold. I introduced a biomimetic organometallic complex for proton reduction by covalent conjugation to biotin. The streptavidin-bound complex is significantly more efficient in photocatalytic hydrogen production than the catalyst alone. With these artificial proteins, it will be possible to explore the effect of second sphere interactions on the activity of the diiron center, and to include in the design properties such as compatibility with conductive materials and electrodes.
ContributorsRoy, Anindya (Author) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Thesis advisor) / Yan, Hao (Committee member) / Gust, Devens (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has become an important tool to characterize and image surfaces with nanoscale resolution. AFM imaging technique has been utilized to study a wide range of substances such as DNA, proteins, cells, silicon surfaces, nanowires etc. Hence AFM has become extremely important in the field of biochemistry, cell biology and material science. Functionalizing the AFM tip made it possible to detect molecules and their interaction using recognition imaging at single molecule level. Also the unbinding force of two molecules can be investigated based on AFM based single molecule force spectroscopy.
In the first study, a new chemical approach to functionalize the AFM tip in a simple and user-friendly way has been described. Copper-free click chemistry and a vinyl sulfone PEG linker have been utilized during the process. Using this technique, human thrombin and integrin were detected in separate experiments. Then a novel tri-arm linker with two recognition molecules on it was designed and two proteins (human thrombin and integrin) were detected simultaneously in the same experiment using recognition imaging. This technique can be applied to understand many multivalent interactions taking place in nature. Using the same tri-arm linker functionalized with two biotin molecules, the interaction of streptavidin with mono-biotin and bis-biotin ligands were investigated. The thermal stability of streptavidin-biotin complex was also studied using SDS-PAGE analysis.
In the final study, structure of native chromatin extracted from normal and cancer cell lines were analyzed using AFM imaging and agarose gel electrophoresis. Different salt fractions were used to extract chromatin region depending on their solubility. Mnase sensitivity of the chromatin sample was used to understand the open and closed structures of chromatin from different sources. The amount of chromatin in different salt fractions could act as an indicator of amount of open and condensed chromatin in normal and cancer cells. Eventually this ratio of closed and open structure of chromatin could be an indicator of tumorigenic nature of particular cell lines.
In the first study, a new chemical approach to functionalize the AFM tip in a simple and user-friendly way has been described. Copper-free click chemistry and a vinyl sulfone PEG linker have been utilized during the process. Using this technique, human thrombin and integrin were detected in separate experiments. Then a novel tri-arm linker with two recognition molecules on it was designed and two proteins (human thrombin and integrin) were detected simultaneously in the same experiment using recognition imaging. This technique can be applied to understand many multivalent interactions taking place in nature. Using the same tri-arm linker functionalized with two biotin molecules, the interaction of streptavidin with mono-biotin and bis-biotin ligands were investigated. The thermal stability of streptavidin-biotin complex was also studied using SDS-PAGE analysis.
In the final study, structure of native chromatin extracted from normal and cancer cell lines were analyzed using AFM imaging and agarose gel electrophoresis. Different salt fractions were used to extract chromatin region depending on their solubility. Mnase sensitivity of the chromatin sample was used to understand the open and closed structures of chromatin from different sources. The amount of chromatin in different salt fractions could act as an indicator of amount of open and condensed chromatin in normal and cancer cells. Eventually this ratio of closed and open structure of chromatin could be an indicator of tumorigenic nature of particular cell lines.
ContributorsSenapati, Subhadip (Author) / Lindsay, Stuart (Thesis advisor) / Zhang, Peiming (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Gould, Ian (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
A vast amount of energy emanates from the sun, and at the distance of Earth, approximately 172,500 TW reaches the atmosphere. Of that, 80,600 TW reaches the surface with 15,600 TW falling on land. Photosynthesis converts 156 TW in the form of biomass, which represents all food/fuel for the biosphere with about 20 TW of the total product used by humans. Additionally, our society uses approximately 20 more TW of energy from ancient photosynthetic products i.e. fossil fuels. In order to mitigate climate problems, the carbon dioxide must be removed from the human energy usage by replacement or recycling as an energy carrier. Proposals have been made to process biomass into biofuels; this work demonstrates that current efficiencies of natural photosynthesis are inadequate for this purpose, the effects of fossil fuel replacement with biofuels is ecologically irresponsible, and new technologies are required to operate at sufficient efficiencies to utilize artificial solar-to-fuels systems. Herein a hybrid bioderived self-assembling hydrogen-evolving nanoparticle consisting of photosystem I (PSI) and platinum nanoclusters is demonstrated to operate with an overall efficiency of 6%, which exceeds that of land plants by more than an order of magnitude. The system was limited by the rate of electron donation to photooxidized PSI. Further work investigated the interactions of natural donor acceptor pairs of cytochrome c6 and PSI for the thermophilic cyanobacteria Thermosynechococcus elogantus BP1 and the red alga Galderia sulphuraria. The cyanobacterial system is typified by collisional control while the algal system demonstrates a population of prebound PSI-cytochrome c6 complexes with faster electron transfer rates. Combining the stability of cyanobacterial PSI and kinetics of the algal PSI:cytochrome would result in more efficient solar-to-fuel conversion. A second priority is the replacement of platinum with chemically abundant catalysts. In this work, protein scaffolds are employed using host-guest strategies to increase the stability of proton reduction catalysts and enhance the turnover number without the oxygen sensitivity of hydrogenases. Finally, design of unnatural electron transfer proteins are explored and may introduce a bioorthogonal method of introducing alternative electron transfer pathways in vitro or in vivo in the case of engineered photosynthetic organisms.
ContributorsVaughn, Michael David (Author) / Moore, Thomas (Thesis advisor) / Fromme, Petra (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Redding, Kevin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The AAA+ ATPase Rubisco activase (Rca) regulates the activity of Rubisco, the photosynthetic enzyme responsible for catalyzing biological carbon fixation. However, the detailed mechanism by which Rca self-association controls Rubisco reactivation activity remains poorly understood. In this work, we are using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) to better characterize the thermodynamics of the assembly process of cotton Rca. We present FCS data for Rca in the presence of Mg*ATPgS and Mg*ADP and for the D173N Walker B motif mutant in the presence of Mg*ATP. Our data are consistent with promotion and stabilization of hexamers by Mg*ATPgS and Mg*ATP, whereas Mg*ADP facilitates continuous assembly. We find that in the presence of Mg·ADP, Rca self-associates in a step-wise fashion to form oligomeric and higher order forms, with a strong size dependence on subunit concentration. The monomer is the dominant species below 0.5 micromolar, whereas the hexamer appears to be most populated in the 10-30 micromolar range. Large assemblies containing on the order of 24 subunits become dominant above 40 micromolar, with continued assembly at even higher concentrations. Our data are consistent with a highly dynamic exchange of subunits among oligomeric species of diverse sizes. The most likely ADP-mediated assembly mechanism seems to involve the formation of spiral supra-molecular structures that grow along the helical axis by the step-wise addition of dimeric units. To examine the effect of Mg·ATP on oligomerization, we have generated the D173N mutant of Rca, which binds but does not hydrolyze ATP. In range of 8 and 70 micromolar, 60-80% of Rca is predicted to form hexamers in the presence of Mg*ATP compared to just 30-40% with Mg*ADP. We see a clear trend at which hexamerization occurs at high ATP:ADP ratios and in addition, at increasing concentrations of free magnesium ions to 5 milimolar that results in formation of six subunits. We present an assembly model where Mg*ATP promotes and stabilizes hexamerization at low micromolar Rca concentrations relative to Mg*ADP, and suggest that this results from closed ring hexamer formation in Mg*ATP and open hexameric spiral formation in Mg*ADP .
ContributorsKuriata, Agnieszka (Author) / Wachter, Rebekka (Thesis advisor) / Redding, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Ros, Alexandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
A major goal of synthetic biology is to recapitulate emergent properties of life. Despite a significant body of work, a longstanding question that remains to be answered is how such a complex system arose? In this dissertation, synthetic nucleic acid molecules with alternative sugar-phosphate backbones were investigated as potential ancestors of DNA and RNA. Threose nucleic acid (TNA) is capable of forming stable helical structures with complementary strands of itself and RNA. This provides a plausible mechanism for genetic information transfer between TNA and RNA. Therefore TNA has been proposed as a potential RNA progenitor. Using molecular evolution, functional sequences were isolated from a pool of random TNA molecules. This implicates a possible chemical framework capable of crosstalk between TNA and RNA. Further, this shows that heredity and evolution are not limited to the natural genetic system based on ribofuranosyl nucleic acids. Another alternative genetic system, glycerol nucleic acid (GNA) undergoes intrasystem pairing with superior thermalstability compared to that of DNA. Inspired by this property, I demonstrated a minimal nanostructure composed of both left- and right-handed mirro image GNA. This work suggested that GNA could be useful as promising orthogonal material in structural DNA nanotechnology.
ContributorsZhang, Su (Author) / Chaut, John C (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Yan, Hao (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Hydrogenases, the enzymes that reversibly convert protons and electrons to hydrogen, are used in all three domains of life. [NiFe]-hydrogenases are considered best suited for biotechnological applications because of their reversible inactivation with oxygen. Phylogenetically, there are four groups of [NiFe]-hydrogenases. The best characterized group, "uptake" hydrogenases, are membrane-bound and catalyze hydrogen oxidation in vivo. In contrast, the group 3 [NiFe]-hydrogenases are heteromultimeric, bifunctional enzymes that fulfill various cellular roles. In this dissertation, protein film electrochemistry (PFE) is used to characterize the catalytic properties of two group 3 [NiFe]-hydrogenases: HoxEFUYH from Synechocystsis sp. PCC 6803 and SHI from Pyrococcus furiosus. First, HoxEFUYH is shown to be biased towards hydrogen production. Upon exposure to oxygen, HoxEFUYH inactivates to two states, both of which can be reactivated on the timescale of seconds. Second, we show that PfSHI is the first example of an oxygen tolerant [NiFe]-hydrogenase that produces two inactive states upon exposure to oxygen. Both inactive states are analogous to those characterized for HoxEFUYH, but oxygen exposed PfSHI produces a greater fraction that reactivates at high potentials, enabling hydrogen oxidation in the presence of oxygen. Third, it is shown that removing the NAD(P)-reducing subunits from PfSHI leads to a decrease in bias towards hydrogen oxidation and renders the enzyme oxygen sensitive. Both traits are likely due to impaired intramolecular electron transfer. Mechanistic hypotheseses for these functional differences are considered.
ContributorsMcIntosh, Chelsea Lee (Author) / Jones, Anne K (Thesis advisor) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Buttry, Daniel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of complex biomolecules comprised of linear, sulfated polysaccharides whose presence on cell surfaces and in the extracellular matrix involve them in many physiological phenomena as well as in interactions with pathogenic microbes. Decorin binding protein A (DBPA), a Borrelia surface lipoprotein involved in the infectivity of Lyme disease, is responsible for binding GAGs found on decorin, a small proteoglycan present in the extracellular matrix. Different DBPA strains have notable sequence heterogeneity that results in varying levels of GAG-binding affinity. In this dissertation, the structures and GAG-binding mechanisms for three strains of DBPA (B31 and N40 DBPAs from B. burgdorferi and PBr DBPA from B. garinii) are studied to determine why each strain has a different affinity for GAGs. These three strains have similar topologies consisting of five α-helices held together by a hydrophobic core as well as two long flexible segments: a linker between helices one and two and a C-terminal tail. This structural arrangement facilitates the formation of a basic pocket below the flexible linker which is the primary GAG-binding epitope. However, this GAG-binding site can be occluded by the flexible linker, which makes the linker a negative regulator of GAG-binding. ITC and NMR titrations provide KD values that show PBr DBPA binds GAGs with higher affinity than B31 and N40 DBPAs, while N40 binds with the lowest affinity of the three. Work in this thesis demonstrates that much of the discrepancies seen in GAG affinities of the three DBPAs can be explained by the amino acid composition and conformation of the linker. Mutagenesis studies show that B31 DBPA overcomes the pocket obstruction with the BXBB motif in its linker while PBr DBPA has a retracted linker that exposes the basic pocket as well as a secondary GAG-binding site. N40 DBPA, however, does not have any evolutionary modifications to its structure to enhance GAG binding which explains its lower affinity for GAGs. GMSA and ELISA assays, along with NMR PRE experiments, confirm that structural changes in the linker do affect GAG-binding and, as a result, the linker is responsible for regulating GAG affinity.
ContributorsMorgan, Ashli M (Author) / Wang, Xu (Thesis advisor) / Allen, James (Committee member) / Yarger, Jeffery (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Since the discovery of graphene, two dimensional materials (2D materials) have become a focus of interest for material research due to their many unique physical properties embedded in their 2D structure. While they host many exciting potential applications, some of these 2D materials are subject to environmental instability issues induced by interaction between material and gas molecules in air, which poses a barrier to further application and manufacture. To overcome this, it is necessary to understand the origin of material instability and interaction with molecules commonly found in air, as well as developing a reproducible and manufacturing compatible method to post-process these materials to extend their lifetime. In this work, the very first investigation on environmental stability on Te containing anisotropic 2D materials such as GaTe and ZrTe3 is reported. Experimental results have demonstrated that freshly exfoliated GaTe quickly deteriorate in air, during which the Raman spectrum, surface morphology, and surface chemistry undergo drastic changes. Environmental Raman spectroscopy and XPS measurements demonstrate that H2O molecules in air interact strongly on the surface while O2, N2, and inert gases don't show any detrimental effects on GaTe surface. Moreover, the anisotropic properties of GaTe slowly disappear during the aging process. To prevent this gas/material interaction based surface transformation, diazonium based surface functionalization is adopted on these Te based 2D materials. Environmental Raman spectroscopy results demonstrate that the stability of functionalized Te based 2D materials exhibit much higher stability both in ambient and extreme conditions. Meanwhile, PL spectroscopy, angle resolved Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy measurements confirm that many attractive physical properties of the material are not affected by surface functionalization. Overall, these findings unveil the degradation mechanism of Te based 2D materials as well as provide a way to significantly enhance their environmental stability through an inexpensive and reproducible surface chemical functionalization route.
ContributorsYang, Sijie (Author) / Tongay, Sefaattin (Thesis advisor) / Gould, Ian (Thesis advisor) / Trovitch, Ryan (Committee member) / Ghirlanda, Giovanna (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017