A Rotating Anode X-ray Generator for Biological Macromolecular Crystallography

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Funds are requested to purchase a rotating anode X-ray generator in order to measure diffraction data from biological macromolecular crystals. This instrument will provide a source of X-rays urgently needed for our existing imaging plate detector system and will directly support the research of 3 major investigators as well as instruction in protein crystallography. Projects that will utilize this X-ray source include DNA methylation; the bleomycin hydrolases and their complexes; transcription complexes; and RNA splicing factors, for all of which crystals are currently available. The crystal structures elucidated in the course of these projects will provide structural frameworks, along with the biochemical and genetic studies, for interpreting the functional and molecular properties of this diverse range of biochemically and biomedically significant macromolecules. In addition, the equipment is necessary for teaching an advanced course in macromolecular crystallography offered in the fall of every year at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as well as training our own graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The advanced course in macromolecular crystallography has a wide impact on the field of structural biology and thus in addition to its importance for the specific crystallographic studies described here, the value of a properly operating X-ray facility to the field of macromolecular crystallography in general would be substantial.