Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics announces a TEAM research project entitled: „Metal-dependent peptide hydrolysis. Tools and mechanisms for biotechnology, toxicology and supramolecular chemistry” (project leader Prof. Wojciech Bal).

The project concerns biotechnological and toxicological aspects of metal ion dependent sequence-specific reaction of peptide bond hydrolysis. This reaction, characterized with an absolute selectivity for a narrow class of peptide sequences, has biotechnological applications, e.g. for an improvement of purification procedures for recombinant proteins. Another aspect of the project is an identification and studies of molecular aspects of reactivity in toxic processes, related to unwanted hydrolysis within specific protein domains, zinc fingers in particular. The analysis of reactivity of the family of hydrolysis products, square planar complexes of hydrolytically active metal ions, is a yet another area of interest of the project. On the one hand, these complexes generate and activate reactive oxygen, thus being potential intracellular toxins, on the other they may serve as building blocks and catalytic elements for supramolecular chemistry.

For more information about project visit: http://www.ibb.waw.pl/~balgroup/team/?project,9