Understanding biological processes involving copper such as transmetalation between different proteins or peptides, its interaction with reducing agents for delivery purposes and its harmful reductions to produce reactive oxygen species is of significant importance. Whenever Cu(II) is not properly stabilized it is key to establish the biological importance of structural motifs with affinity for copper in many proteins and to better design ligands to treat, for example, Alzheimer, but without interfering with other homeostatic processes of copper. Herein we propose a series of experiments involving the use of SSRL UV-Vis Stopped-Flow SFM-2000 instrument together with the collection of high resolution x-ray absorption spectra (HERFD-XAS) in conjunction with a recently-developed hydrodynamic focusing mixer device in continuous-flow conditions to study the reaction of Cu2+(GHK) with glutathione in order to observe key intermediates during the reduction of Cu(II) to Cu(I). Ultimately, we seek to establish this methodology to study important processes in the homeostasis of copper, its interaction with key peptides for stabilization, delivery or to study undesired processes leading to disease 

Experimental team:

Mario U. Delgado-Jaime, University of Guadalajara. 

Thomas Kroll, SLAC, SSRL

Aikaterini Diamanti, University of Guadalajara. 

Diego Velarde González, University of Guadalajara. 

Andrea de la Torre Rangel, University of Guadalajara. 

Maria F. Ross Graciano, University of Guadalajara. 

Sebastian Dehe, SLAC, LCLS.