Protein alchemy: Changing b-sheet into a-helix In January 1994, George Rose and Trevor Creamer threw down the gauntlet. They challenged their fellow protein researchers to try their hands at a bit of alchemy: radically transforming the basic three-dimensional (3D) structure of a protein while altering no more than 50% of its amino acid building blocks. As a reward, they offered $1000 of their own money.