Intramolecular excited energy transfer pathways in proteins

The transfer of energy perturbations within protein structure is an important phenomenon in many biological processes. In particular, the transfer of energy perturbations within a molecule in the absence of electron transfer is critical to the understanding of such processes as signaling involving receptors, channels, and enzymes among others, and to the design and development of relevant conducting materials. In this work, we have proposed a mechanism to explain this nonradiative, nonelectron energy transfer based on the π-orbital interactions of aromatic amino acids. Additionally, some theoretical background and possible computational approaches are presented as support for the proposal.