International Postdoctoral Fellows Program: In Vitro Study of the Role of Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin on the Enhanced Protein Production of Escherichia coli(Travel Award)

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This award is under the International Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research at foreign centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Claire Komives of the University of Pittsburgh to work with Professor Dr. J. E. Bailey at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. The objective of this project is to elucidate the mechanism of Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin (VHb) in vitro, and to study its function in a synthetic cell environment. Two mechanisms for the protein action have been suggested which provide the basis of this study. The capacity of VHb for improving oxygen uptake to the cell, and its potential role in affecting the efficiency of oxygen utilization by specific cell components will be explored. Because VHb both associates with the cell membrane and resides within the cell, its function cannot be properly understood by merely studying it in solution. Reversed micelles offer a novel approach to creating a cell-like environment for carrying out the in vitro mechanistic studies. The surfactant or phospholipid layer encapsulating water pools within an apolar solvent is analogous to a cell membrane. Thus, the action of VHb is to be studied in a well characterized medium that mocks some important features of cell make-up, but which lacks the complexity of interconnected chemical pathways necessary to the function of a living cell. The award recommendation provides funds to cover international travel to Switzerland and a stipend for twelve months.