Center for the Development of an Integrated Protein and Nucleic Acid Biotechnology

加州理工学院(Caltech)与喷气推进实验室(JPL)合作提出的这项提案要求提供资金，以建立一个开发蛋白质和核酸综合生物技术的科学技术中心。中心主任将由勒罗伊·胡德教授担任。该中心将采用一种分析方法，利用二维(2-D)凝胶电泳法对蛋白质表达模式进行计算机辅助分析，并将通过开发直接从二维凝胶中获得的蛋白质的序列分析方法来表征观察到的蛋白质的分子结构。来自二维凝胶图谱的定性和定量信息以及分子序列数据将被结合在一种新形式的蛋白质数据库中。这将使在一个实验室获得的结果与在任何其他实验室获得的结果进行严格的比较。该中心还将扩展可用于相应基因的快速克隆和序列分析的技术，并将开发新的算法和最先进的硬件，以便将所产生的数据与蛋白质和DNA序列数据库中的现有数据进行彻底比较。分子生物学的关键问题之一是了解单个基因是如何在正确的发育阶段在适当的组织中打开和关闭的，以及特定的基因在单个细胞中的协调表达如何赋予这些细胞独特的特征。因此，发育生物学中的一个基本问题与跟踪数百种蛋白质表达中发生的质和量的变化有关。这意味着需要快速鉴定、克隆和测序负责指导这一复杂模式的单个基因和基因组。如上所述，蛋白质和核酸表征的综合技术和新仪器的开发和实施将改变对这些和其他基本生物学问题的现代生物学研究的进程。

This proposal from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), requests funds to establish a Science and Technology Center for the Development of An Integrated Protein and Nucleic Acid Biotechnology. The Director of the Center will be Professor Leroy Hood. The Center will implement an analytical approach to the computer- assisted analysis of patterns of protein expression using two- dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis, and will characterize the molecular structure of the observed proteins by developing methods for sequence analysis of the proteins obtained directly from the 2-D gels. The qualitative and quantitative information from the 2-D gel patterns along with the molecular sequence data will be combined in a new form of protein data base. This will allow the rigorous comparison of results obtained in one laboratory with those obtained in any other. The Center will also extend the techniques available for rapid cloning and sequence analysis of the corresponding genes, and will develop novel algorithms and state-of-the-art hardware for thorough comparison of the resulting data with extant data in protein and DNA sequence data bases. One of the key problems in molecular biology is understanding how individual genes are turned on and off in appropriate tissues at the correct developmental stage, and how the coordinated expression of particular batteries of genes in individual cells gives these cells their unique characteristics. Hence, one of the fundamental problems in developmental biology relates to following the qualitative and quantitative changes that occur in the expression of hundreds of proteins. This translates into the need for rapid identification, cloning, and sequencing of the individual genes and gene batteries responsible for directing this complex pattern. The development and implementation of the integrated technologies and new instrumentation for the characterization of proteins and nucleic acids, as described above, will change the course of modern biological research on these and other fundamental biological problems.