Book of Abstracts - Ruhr-Universität Bochum

P-82
ISBOMC `10 5.7 – 9.7. 2010 Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Selective Recognition of Actinides by Protein-Based Reagents
Salih Özçubukçu, a Seraphine V. Wegner, a Kalyaneswar Mandal, b Stephen B. H. Kent, b
Mark P. Jensen, c and Chuan He *a
a The University of Chicago, Department of Chemistry, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA. b The University of
Chicago, Department of Chemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute for
Biophysical Dynamics, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA. c Argonne National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences
and Engineering Division, 60439, IL, USA,.
e-mail: chuanhe@uchicago.edu
It is generally accepted that trivalent actinides prefer softer chelating atoms such as sulfur rather than
oxygen; hence selective separation of trivalent actinides from trivalent lanthanides can be obtained by
soft-donor ligands.
Barbara Imperiali and her coworkers have developed a series of peptides, called lanthanide binding tag
(LBT) which selectively binds lanthanide ions with high affinities 1 . This pre-organized ligand template
provides an ideal system to study these long standing questions regarding separate trivalent actinides
from trivalent lanthanides. Pre-organization of the ligands by the peptide scaffold provides high
binding affinity. We can redesign these small peptides with nitrogen- and sulfur- based ligands to
provide selectivity. We plan to systematically screen ligand types and geometries to achieve selective
binding of actinides over lanthanides (Figure 1).
References
1. M. Nitz, M. Sherawat, K. J. Franz, E. Peisach, K. N. Allen, B. Imperiali, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.
2004, 43, 3682-3685.
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