Our recent JACS paper extends our investigations of protein hydration dynamics to the case of macromolecular crowding. In the paper we studied the slowdown of hydration dynamics of vibrationally labeled lysozyme in the presence of either protein or polymer (polyethylene glycol) crowding agents. In both cases we discovered a pronounced dynamical transition, in stark contrast to the gradual slowdown we found when we examined glycerol/water solutions. The experimental results were supported by explicit solvent MD simulations, where we found a very similar protein distant dependent hydration slowdown. This work supports and extends previous findings of the Havenith group using THz spectroscopy. Future work will address the influence of ions on hydration dynamics, in particular, on the nature of the crowding-induced dynamical transition.

See the news release here.