Peptide aggregation, conformation, and dynamics via isotope-edited infrared spectroscopy

该奖项由霍利奥克山学院化学学部实验物理化学项目和分子与细胞生物科学部分子生物物理项目资助，由肖恩·迪凯特教授负责对同位素标记肽的红外光谱进行研究。与外部实验室的进一步合作将研究其中一些相同肽的二维红外和紫外拉曼光谱。迪凯特教授、他的博士后研究员和他的本科生的研究应该有助于我们更好地理解蛋白质折叠和蛋白质聚集的一些细节。迪凯特教授研究的蛋白质聚集问题将提供一些基本信息，这些信息将有助于整理与各种疾病有关的朊病毒蛋白质聚集机制。此外，拟议的研究将为芒特霍利奥克学院的年轻女性提供研究经验，这将有助于她们在科学领域追求未来的职业生涯，在这个领域，女性历来代表性不足。

In this award, supported by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division and the Molecular Biophysics Program of the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, Prof. Sean Decatur of Mt. Holyoke College will conduct research on the infrared spectroscopy of isotopically-labeled peptides. Additional collaborations with outside laboratories will investigate the two-dimensional infrared and ultraviolet raman spectroscopy of some of these same peptides.The studies by Prof. Decatur, his postdoctoral fellow, and his undergraduate research students should help lead us to a better understanding of some of the details of protein folding and protein aggregation. The problems of protein aggregation to be probed by Prof. Decatur's research will provide some of the basic information that will be useful in sorting out the mechanics of prion protein aggregation, implicated in a variety of diseases. In addition, the research experience that the proposed studies will provide to the young women at Mount Holyoke College will help them in pursuing future careers in the sciences, where women have been historically underrepresented.