1. Paragraph Seminar IV<br />by Mary Chely Quiñones<br />The seminar given by Mary Chely was about the study of a protein’s binding capacities. In the study, the investigators wanted to study the binding of the Sec14p protein, but since this protein is very unstable they used the Sfh1 protein. This protein has no biological capacity, but it shares the same properties as Sec14p. The protein was mutated to see if the binding process would improve. Using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) they saw and analyzed the resulting signals from the protein and its mutations. EPR works by observing the magnetic fields of molecules and ions with one or more unpaired electrons in their composition. In the experiment, the researchers needed a label that would not interact with the proteins to gain the resonance effect. In this case they used nitroxide which has one unpaired electron as the label and because the protein alone would not give any type of signal when EPR was applied.<br />