Purchase of a Differential Scanning Calorimeter for Studies of DNA Polymerases

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This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Program will enable the Department of Chemistry at Louisiana State University and A&M College to purchase a differential scanning calorimeter. This equipment will be used primarily by junior faculty member Vincent J. LiCata, whose research focuses on studies of DNA polymerases. He will carry out parallel quantitative measurements of the thermodynamics of unfolding of four DNA polymerases from bacteria. In addition, Dr. LiCata will measure the pH, water activity, and ionic dependencies of unfolding of these polymerases. This project will provide the first calorimetric determinations of the stability of any of these polymerases. One of the polymerases Dr. LiCata will study remains almost completely uncharacterized biophysically, yet it is the most commonly used polymerase in polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. PCR enables scientists to mass-produce DNA molecules from incredibly small amounts of material; thus it is useful to a wide range of scientists, from forensic scientists to those working on the human genome project.