U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science: Early Events of Protein Folding

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0089286GruebeleThis award supports a three-year collaborative research project between Professor Martin Gruebele of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Professor Hiroshi Kihara of the Kansai Medical University in Japan. The researchers will be undertaking a study of the early event of protein folding. The research will bring together experimentalists and theorists from both countries to study early events during the folding of three proteins: apomyoglobin, a ubiquitin mutant, and beta-lactoglobulin. Their efforts will be combined to extend the folding phase diagram to low temperature and high viscosity conditions. The theorists will be fully involved in the project beginning with the earliest experimental stages. The research will broaden our knowledge of folding by exploring the energy landscape under a wide range of external conditions. At very low temperatures and high viscosity very fast folding events will be slowed down considerably and the dependence of the kinetics on external conditions will be studied. Recently developed theoretical models will be used to simulate these conditions, and the experimental data will allow parameters in the theory to be constrained. The proteins to be studied sample a wide class of alpha, alpha/beta and mostly beta proteins. The project brings together the efforts of two laboratories that have complementary expertise and research capabilities. The U.S. researchers provide T-jump/fluorescence expertise, while the Japanese provide expertise in X-ray scattering at the Tsukuba Photon Factory. This research advances international human resources through the participation of a graduate student. Through the exchange of ideas and technology, this project will broaden our base of basic knowledge and promote international understanding and cooperation. The researchers plan to publish results of the research in scientific journals and report on the findings at scientific meetings.