For his 50th birthday, director of protein evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology Andrei N. Lupas in Tübingen, Germany, got a personalized protein. His colleagues designed a protein structure with an amino acid sequence spelling out his name.
The work was presented in October 2013 and was recently published by the Journal of Structural Biology.
The three-dimensional structure of the amino acid sequence „ANDREI-N-LVPAS“ inserted between two GCN4 adaptors is a three-helical coiled coil. Peculiarities of this structure are a bound bromide ion in the middle of the bundle and the accommodation of the amino acid proline (P), which is rarely found in natural coiled coils. (Courtesy of Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology)
Andrei Lupas (Courtesy of Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology)
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