Instrumentation for the Macromolecular Biophysics Facility at the UCSD

对我们理解大量生物过程来说，重要的是表征分子结构和分子相互作用。加州大学圣地亚哥分校的教员提议建立一个大分子生物物理设施(MBF)来推进这些类型的研究。MBF的功能是为生物分子和生物物理研究提供必要的仪器，并促进加州大学圣迭戈分校对生物物理和生物分子研究感兴趣的研究人员之间的互动。MBF的主要目标是创建一个生物物理基础设施，使必要的仪器随时可用，同时促进研究人员之间的互动。该项目将提供的仪器包括用于分析蛋白质二级结构和配体结合引起的构象变化的圆二色光谱仪，用于表征大分子物理性质的分析超速离心机，以及用于研究蛋白质-蛋白质、蛋白质-DNA和配体受体相互作用的表面等离子体共振仪。这些仪器将与目前位于各个实验室的多肽合成和N-末端测序仪器结合在一起，这些实验室将为该设施提供资金。MBF将被一系列不同的学院用于大分子的生物物理分析，包括分析蛋白质-蛋白质、蛋白质-脂肪和蛋白质-核酸相互作用，这些相互作用在细胞-细胞相互作用、信号转导和转录等不同的生物过程中至关重要。为了有效，这样的设施必须得到适当的管理和维护。该设施的目的不仅是购买最先进的仪器，而且要建立一个协调良好的设施，工作人员将可用于培训学生、博士后研究员和教职员工。MBF是为最大限度地改善加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究环境并促进跨学科研究努力而共同努力的一部分。MBF将加入加州大学圣迭戈分校现有的另外三个中心(近红外数据收集研究资源、国家显微和成像研究中心以及国家生物计算资源)，隶属于新成立的生物结构研究中心，并将通过为大分子生物物理提供关键的通用分析仪器来补充现有中心。

Essential to our understanding of a large number of biological processes is the characterization of molecular structure and molecular interactions. Faculty at the University of Califomia San Diego proposes to establish a Macromolecular Biophysics Facility (MBF) to advance these types of studies. The function of the MBF is to provide the necessary instrumentation for biomolecular and biophysical studies and to facilitate interactions between investigators at UCSD with interests in biophysical and biomolecular research. The primary goal of the MBF is to create a biophysical infrastructure that will make essential instrumentation readily available and at the same time foster interactions between researchers. Instruments to be provided by this project include a circular dichroism spectrometer to analyze secondary structure of proteins and conformational changes due to ligand binding, an analytical ultracentrifuge for the characterization of the physical properties of macromolecules, and a surface plasmon resonance instrument for the study of protein-protein, protein-DNA, and ligand receptor interactions. These instruments will be combined with peptide synthesis and N-terminal sequencing instrumentation currently located in individual laboratories that will be contributed to the facility. The MBF will be used by a diverse set of faculty for biophysical analysis of macromolecules including analysis of protein-protein, protein-lipid, and protein-nucleic acid interactions important in such diverse biological processes as cell-cell interactions, signal transduction and transcription. To be effective, a facility such as this must be properly administered and maintained. The aim of the facility is not simply to purchase state-of-the-art instrumentation, but to establish a well-coordinated facility where staff will be available for training students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. The MBF is part of a concerted effort to maximize the research environment at UCSD an d to foster interdisciplinary research efforts. The MBF will join three other existing centers at UCSD (the NIR Research Resource for Data Collection, the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research, and the National Biological Computing Resource) under the umbrella of the newly formed Center for Research in Biological Structure and will complement the existing centers by providing crucial common analysis instruments for macromolecular biophysics.