September 19th- LC Seminar
Elsa C. Y. Yan, Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
Talk Title: Detecting the First Hydration Shell Structures of Proteins and DNA
@12:30 in LC 101
Understanding the role of water in biological processes remains a central challenge in the life sciences. The structures of water in the hydration shells of biopolymers are particularly difficult to study in situ under ambient conditions due to the overwhelming background from aqueous environments. We combine experimental and computational methods of chiral vibrational sum frequency generation spectroscopy (chiral SFG) to study proteins and DNA. We demonstrate that the chiral SFG signals of water O-H stretches originate from the first hydration shells of these proteins and DNA. We show that biomolecules transfer their chirality to the surrounding water solvent, generating chiral SFG signals. This transfer of chirality has significant implications: a complete description of the chirality of biomacromolecules must include their hydration shells. Applying these methods, we detect perturbations in the first hydration shell structures, allowing us to investigate molecular mechanism of drug binding to DNA, protein denaturation by urea, and protein stabilization by trimethylamine N-oxide. This work provides molecular insight into correlating the integrity of first hydration shell structure with stability of folded biopolymers, presenting new possibilities for solving fundamental and engineering problems.
