MRI: Acquisition of an X-ray Diffraction Instrument for Interdisciplinary and Collaborative Research and Education in an Undergraduate Setting

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This award is for the acquisition of an X-ray diffraction instrument that will replace a 44-yr-old instrument. New X-ray optics have made sealed-tube X-ray systems with dramatically reduced maintenance requirements a viable option for X-ray studies of a wide variety of samples. The X-ray diffraction instrument will support research in the areas of: 1) Enzyme mechanism and inhibitor design; 2) Structure/function relationships; 3) The basic physical processes involved in cryogenic cooling of macromolecular crystals, a critical but poorly understood aspect of macromolecular crystallography; 4) The use of stabilizing osmolytes to study the structures of flexible proteins, which are difficult targets for structural biologists, yet extremely important for biological systems; 5) Oxidative induction of order-disorder transitions in polyolefins, which will improve understanding of degradation of polymeric materials; 6) Crystallization of rare earth minerals in sol-gels; and 7) Analysis of soil horizons in the wine-growing region of Walla Walla. This instrument will be used for interdisciplinary faculty and student research, research training of undergraduate students, and classroom instruction. Research teams from other undergraduate institutions in the Northwest will use also the system for structure/function studies. The instrument will allow development of teaching laboratories in X-ray diffraction, X-ray crystallography and structural biology. These teaching laboratory projects will be publicized to the educational/science community through web publication and educational presentations at professional conferences.