The authors used de novo protein design to generate a simple unnatural oxygen transport protein, akin to human neuroglobin; the design strategy involved the assembly of a short helix-forming sequence into a four-helix bundle that contained histidine residues at key positions. The O2 on-rate, off-rate and dissociation constants are similar to those of human neuroglobin and other naturally occurring globins.
- Ronald L. Koder
- J. L. Ross Anderson
- P. Leslie Dutton