October 9, 2024
HFIR a fit for Nobel laureate’s designer proteins
Biochemist David Baker was announced as the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on October 9, 2024, for his work on proteins performed, in part, at HFIR.
In 2018, Baker designed a protein he thought could bind to amantadine, a drug used in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Baker’s new computationally designed amantadine-binding protein (ABP) is a potential control switch in targeted anti-cancer cell therapies. However, to confirm the complete structure and function of the assembled protein, a critical piece of information was missing. HFIR’s IMAGINE instrument delivered the missing piece (the location of hydrogen bonds in the ABP complex) through neutron scattering. This technique allowed Baker and his team to see hydrogen, a capability no other research technique can provide.
The IMAGINE instrument at the High Flux Isotope Reactor allowed Nobel laureate and biochemist David Baker and his team to see hydrogen atoms in a structure of a protein he designed.
(Photo Credit: ORNL/U.S. Dept. of Energy)
