Studies of synthetic protein models designed for biomolecular materials applications and model ion channels via molecular dynamics simulations

MD simulation has become an established and powerful tool to study large macromolecular systems including proteins in explicit solvent. Here simulation is applied to two types of synthetic protein models developed for biomolecular materials applications and for understanding complex biological problems, respectively. The simulation work presented in this thesis aims to facilitate the interpretation of experimental data and to provide detailed structural and dynamic information of protein models inaccessible by experiments.;Several synthetic protein models have been investigated in this thesis. Firstly, the structure and dynamics of a de novo designed amphiphilic 4-α-helix bundle protein model capable of binding biological metallo-porphyrin cofactors are examined. The simulation results are in agreement with the experimental structural determinations available at lower resolution and limited dimension. Then the work proceeds to incorporate a more comprehensive nonbiological conjugated chromophore into this peptide model. The results show that the protein module plays an important role in controlling the chromophore's conformation and dynamics that are critical to optimize its functionality. Secondly, based on the success of the first work, simulation is utilized to test the viability and help improve the design of two computational designed multi-metalloporphyrins binding protein assemblies, which have different structural features and potential applications.;Thirdly, the protein model idea is applied to study the mechanism of the general anesthetic binding as well. The simplified model allows for more sophisticated physical techniques, such as infrared spectroscopy, to be used. MD simulation correctly predicts the infrared frequency shift of the vibrational probes at the binding site in the presence of anesthetics. It also provides the interpretation to the experimental results and reveals the nature of the weak bonding between anesthetics and the model ion channel peptide.