A protein-based dynamic hydrogel was generated via photo-crosslinking of an engineered protein-polymer conjugate. The protein calmodulin was used in this study due to its pronounced hinge motion in the presence of a variety of ligands. The resulting hydrogel is capable of undergoing substantial (>65%) and controllable volume transitions in the presence of calmodulin ligands, and the change can be attributed to a shift in protein conformation upon ligand binding.