SET4Pro: Single-electron transistors for studies of redox proteins

Electron transfer reactions, executed by redox proteins, are an essential part of many important biological processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, and DNA synthesis.

Moreover, several human diseases, including Alzheimer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancers, have been associated with malfunctioning redox proteins.

Today, fluorescence and force spectroscopies are primarily used for studies of redox proteins at the single-molecule level.

In contrast, electrochemical measurements, which are particularly suitable for electron transfer reactions as they probe the electron transfer process directly, are much less studied.This proposal aims to develop a new experimental platform (SET4Pro) exploiting single-electron transistors for registration of electrochemical signals from redox proteins.

The project is divided into three technical tasks that will address (1) the design of the SET4Pro platform, (2) development of data analysis procedure and (3) demonstration of the applicability of the method for studies of enzymatic catalysis in multicentered redox proteins.

The project bridges the fields of quantum electronics and biochemistry and is expected to significantly advance the state-of-the-art single-molecule biophysical methods and open the way to a new class of electrochemical measurements.