U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Science: Theoretical Investigation of Immunoglobulin Loop Structure

美国-墨西哥合作科学：免疫球蛋白环结构的理论研究

• 批准号: 9416589
• 负责人: Jan Hermans
• 金额: $ 0.58万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1995
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1995-02-15 至 2001-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9416589&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: U.S.; Mexico; Cooperative; Science; Theoretical

9416589 Hermans This Americas Program award will support a collaborative research project between Dr. Jan Hermans, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Dr. Francisco Lara Ochoa, Universidad Autonoma Nacional de Mexico, focusing on complementary studies of loop structures in antibodies. Methods for study of conformational stability of biological macromolecules with molecular dynamics simulation will be applied to problems of the conformational preferences of hypervariable loops of gamma globulins and related molecules. Calculations will be performed to assess the relative free energies in solution for different conformers of specificity determining loops. This research addresses two important scientific questions: the relation between sequence and structure of immunoglobulin loops and the problem of distinguishing alternate conformations of proteins on the basis of simulations. Answers to these questions will have important consequences for understanding the properties of new immunoglobulin sequences, in the context of protein engineering and disease, and would be a valuable final step in theoretical studies of the so-called protein folding problem, which has been a central question in structural biology for many years. ***

9416589 Hermans 该美洲计划奖将支持北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校的 Jan Hermans 博士和墨西哥国立自治大学的 Francisco Lara Ochoa 博士之间的合作研究项目，重点是抗体环结构的互补研究。 利用分子动力学模拟研究生物大分子构象稳定性的方法将应用于解决丙种球蛋白及相关分子高变环的构象偏好问题。 将进行计算以评估溶液中特异性确定环的不同构象异构体的相对自由能。 这项研究解决了两个重要的科学问题：免疫球蛋白环的序列和结构之间的关系以及基于模拟区分蛋白质替代构象的问题。 这些问题的答案将对理解蛋白质工程和疾病背景下新的免疫球蛋白序列的特性产生重要影响，并且将是所谓蛋白质折叠问题理论研究中有价值的最后一步，蛋白质折叠问题多年来一直是结构生物学的核心问题。 ***