(292b) Protein Ligands for Separation of Rare Earth Elements

The discovery that certain lanthanides are specifically utilized by biological systems has opened new avenues for development of novel biochemistry-based strategies for highly selective recovery and separation of rare earth elements. In this talk, I will describe my group’s discovery of lanthanide-binding proteins with distinct properties relative to the archetypal lanmodulin originally purified from M. extorquens. The focus will be on the insights that the biochemical and structural characterization of these systems have yielded into the coordination chemistry and supramolecular chemistry underlying biological recognition of lanthanides. Finally, I will illustrate how the principles illustrated by these natural systems can be harnessed for development of protein-based separations.