Metal-assembled modular proteins: Toward functional protein design

Metal-assembled parallel helix-bundle proteins have been used to investigate electron transfer through alpha-helical structures. Fermi Golden Rule distance dependence of electron transfer rates was established in a family of designed metalloproteins, and the contribution of intrahelical hydrogen bonding to the matrix tunneling element was explored. The first steps toward the design of functional proteins using dynamic combinatorial assembly of alpha-helical structural elements are described.