Many body study of iron(III) bound human serum transferrin

Abstract

Transferrins are proteins responsible for transporting metal ions in all vertebrates. However, the iron binding properties of transferrins remain poorly understood. Iron, as a transition metal, forms ions with partially-occupied 3d subshells. The electrons within the 3d orbitals of iron-bound transferrin are therefore highly localized, and interact with one another in a complex manner that cannot be fully characterized by considering each electron separately. In this work, we make use of dynamical mean field theory, a technique that accounts for the strong interactions between these electrons. This is a higher level of theory than has ever been used to study transferrins. We present novel data on the effective spin, multiplet states and optical spectra of iron-bound human serum transferrin.