Purchase of Equipment for Protein Crystallography, Fiber Diffraction and Cryo-electron

建议购买一台Optronics C-4100SP显微密度计和一台Silicon Graphics Iris 4D/280SX计算机，用于Stubbs、Anders、Flicker、Robinson、Newcomer等人的蛋白质和核酸结构研究。Flicker博士和Robinson博士计划在他们的蛋白质组合结构研究中使用冷冻电子显微镜：Flicker博士正在研究肌动球蛋白复合体；Robinson博士正在研究神经毒素。斯塔布斯博士对植物病毒结构的研究也将受益于冷冻电子显微镜设备。安德森博士、纽科姆博士和斯塔布斯博士正在使用蛋白质结晶学方法来研究各种分子。随着一些新的水晶可供使用，现有的设施已经饱和。此外，几种晶型的晶胞太大，无法使用现有设施进行数据收集。斯塔布斯博士的光纤衍射研究还需要能够解析非常大的单胞的衍射数据的设备。主要用户大量使用现有的计算机设施。结构的改进，尤其是安德森博士和斯塔布斯博士以及纽科姆博士和弗利克博士的新项目，将需要大幅增加计算能力。

It is proposed that an Optronics C-4100SP microdensitometer, and a Silicon Graphics Iris 4D/280SX computer be purchased, for use in structural studies of proteins and nucleic acids by Drs. Stubbs, Anders, Flicker, Robinson, Newcomer and others. Drs. Flicker and Robinson plan to utilize cryo-electron microscopy in their structural studies of protein assemblies: Dr. Flicker is studying actomyosin complexes; Dr. Robinson studies neurotoxins. Dr. Stubbs' studies of plant virus structure will also benefit from cryo-electron microscopy facilities. Drs. Anderson, Newcomer, and Stubbs are using protein crystallographic methods to study a variety of molecules. With a number of new crystals new available, the present facilities have reached saturation. Furthermore, several of the crystal forms have unit cells too large to permit data collection using existing facilities. Dr. Stubbs' fiber diffraction studies also require equipment capable of resolving diffraction data from very large unit cells. The major users make heavy use of the existing computer facilities. Structural refinement, especially by Dr. Anderson and Stubbs and new projects of Dr. Newcomer and Flicker, will require substantially increased computing capacity.