B09 Lange: Design of alternative protein conformations

In this project, we design an altered conformational state into an existing rigid binding protein using computational methods. We aim to stabilise an alternative protein conformation that is not binding competent without disrupting the original binding interface. The protein can thus still adopt the binding-competent conformational state of the wild-type protein, which allows fine-tuning of the binding affinity via stabilisation and destabilisation of the alternative conformation. NMR, X-ray and fluorescence methods will be used to characterise the altered conformational free energy landscape.