Final technical brief / DOE grant DE-FG03-96 ER 62219. Computational study of electron tunneling in proteins

Electron transfer (ET) processes in proteins are characterized by the motion of a single electron between centers of localization (such as the chlorophyll dimer in photosynthetic reaction centers). An electronic donor state D is created by the injection of an electron or by photo-excitation, after which the system makes a radiationless transition to an acceptor state A., resulting in the effective transfer of an electron over several angstroms. The experimental and theoretical understanding of the rate of this process has been the focus of much attention in physics, chemistry and biology