Project Description:
Prothrombin is a plasma protein that is catalyzed to thrombin, a key enzyme in the blood coagulation cascade, by factor Xa. Factor Va is another plasma protein that serves as a cofactor in the Xa-catalyzed conversion of prothrombin. Factor Va has been shown to increase the rate of thrombin conversion approximately 300,000 fold. The increased rate may be due to the ability of factor Va to bind the phospholipid bilayer of a cell and factor Xa concurrently.

The focus of my project is to determine the protein structure of factor Va using X-ray crystallography. Once the structure is known, it may be possible to accurately model the interactions between factors Va and Xa and offer further insight into the blood coagulation cascade.