Green fluorescent protein as a mechanical sensor

Inquiry into intracellular and cytoskeletal mechanics requires an intracellular mechanical sensor to verify models of sub-cellular structure dynamics. To this end, the green fluorescent protein (GFP) is considered as a mechanical sensor candidate with many desirable characteristics. Implicit solvent molecular dynamics CHARMM simulations demonstrated details inaccessible by AFM and OT methods, such as the linkage dependency of fluorophore environment changes and the energy exchanges between protein components during protein unfolding. Theoretical considerations and in vitro experiments explored the parameters important to GFP conjugation by N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) ester chemistry, and the complexities associated with a polymer approach to a controlled distribution of force across fluorescent proteins in a polyacrylamide (PAM) gel.

Department dc:contributor.department

Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Muso, Taro M. (Taro Michael)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Paul Matsudaira.

• Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39735
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/39735

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39735