MRI-R2: Acquisition of High-throughput Crystallization Instrumentation to Enhance the Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility of the University of Puerto Rico

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Major Research Instrumentation-Recovery and Reinvestment (MRI-R2) award funds the acquisition of high-throughput crystallization instrumentation to enhance the Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility (MXCF) of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The long-term goal of this facility is to bring a productive structural biology research component to the University of Puerto Rico, which will impact a wide range of research efforts. Structural biology researchers at the facility are investigating a wide scope of projects, including non-genetic mechanisms of protein sequence variability, enzyme function, and related topics. The facility plays a central role in graduate education, training workshops in x-ray crystallography and structural biology, and training of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates. This instrumentation promotes collaboration of investigators from four research centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and prestigious research institutes in the US with the common theme of solving important problems through structure determination using x-ray crystallography. The faculty involved in this project are actively engaged in training efforts with a large population of underrepresented minority students at the University of Puerto Rico. The MXCF will continue to promote the expansion of high-quality, collaborative structural biology research among the University of Puerto Rico scientific community, strengthening multidisciplinary collaborations among investigators within UPR-Río Piedras and other institutions inside and outside Puerto Rico. Undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty will be trained in modern methods of macromolecular crystallization and structure determination via a new course and a workshop series that will include hands-on experience with the newly acquired instrumentation. Results from these studies will be disseminated by student and faculty presentations at regional and national meetings, and through publication in peer-reviewed journals.