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

该奖项隶属于国际博士后研究员计划，该计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外公认的卓越中心进行三到十二个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持匹兹堡大学的克莱尔·科米夫斯博士进行为期12个月的博士后研究访问，与苏黎世瑞士联邦理工学院的j·e·贝利教授合作，瑞士。本项目旨在阐明玻璃体颤菌血红蛋白（VHb）的体外作用机制，并研究其在合成细胞环境中的功能。提出了两种蛋白质作用机制，为本研究提供了基础。我们将探讨VHb促进细胞摄氧量的能力，以及它在影响特定细胞成分对氧气利用效率方面的潜在作用。由于VHb既与细胞膜结合又存在于细胞内，因此仅在溶液中研究它的功能是无法正确理解的。反胶束提供了一种新的方法来创建细胞样环境进行体外机制研究。表面活性剂或磷脂层包裹着极性溶剂中的水池，类似于细胞膜。因此，VHb的作用将在一种具有良好特征的培养基中进行研究，这种培养基模拟细胞构成的一些重要特征。但它缺乏活细胞功能所必需的相互连接的化学途径的复杂性。该奖项建议提供资金以支付前往瑞士的国际旅行和12个月的津贴。

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.