Long & Medium Term Research: X-ray Crystallography Studies of Phycobiliproteins

中长期研究：藻胆蛋白的x射线晶体学研究。该奖项是在国外卓越中心长期和中期研究计划下推荐的。该项目旨在使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外被证明卓越的研究机构进行长期研究。该奖项为开展联合研究以及利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件提供了机会。该奖项将支持华盛顿大学的Michael Becker博士与德国马丁斯里德市马克斯-普朗克生物化学研究所的Robert Huber教授进行为期12个月的访问，研究“藻胆蛋白的x射线晶体学研究”。隐单胞藻的藻胆蛋白具有非常不寻常的光谱和形态特征。首席研究员建议用x射线衍射技术确定其中一种蛋白质的结构。为了找到适合x射线衍射研究的藻胆蛋白，研究人员将首先从几种不同种类的隐单胞藻中分离、部分表征并尝试结晶藻胆蛋白。对这些蛋白质的结构研究可以在至少两个不同的生物化学领域产生令人兴奋的信息：光合能量转移和蛋白质折叠和聚集。

Long & Medium-Term Research: X-Ray Crystallography Studies of Phycobiliproteins. This award recommendation is made under the Program for Long & Medium-Term Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence. The program seeks to enable U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct long-term research abroad at research institutions of proven excellence. Awards provide opportunities for the conduct of joint research, and the use of unique or compli- mentary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions in foreign countries. This award will support a twelve-month visit by Dr. Michael Becker of the University of Washington to work with Prof. Dr. Robert Huber of the Max-Planck-Institut f>r Biochemie in Martinsried bei M>nchen, Germany, on "X-Ray Crystallography Studies of Phycobiliproteins." Phycobiliproteins of the cryptomonad algae have highly unusual spectral and morpho- logical characteristics. The principal investigator proposes to determine the structure of one of these proteins by X-Ray diffraction techniques. In order to find a phycobiliprotein suitable for X-Ray diffraction studies, the investigators will first isolate, partially characterize, and attempt to crystallize phycobiliproteins from several different species of the cryptomonad algae. Structural studies on these proteins could yield exciting information in at least two different areas of biochemistry: photosynthetic energy transfer, and protein folding and aggregation.