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

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该主要研究仪器回收和再投资（MRI-R2）奖资助高通量结晶仪器的收购，以增强波多黎各（UPR）的高分子X射线晶体学设施（MXCF）。该设施的长期目标是为波多黎各大学带来富有成效的结构生物学研究部分，这将影响广泛的研究工作。该设施的结构生物学研究人员正在研究范围广泛的项目，包括蛋白质序列变异性的非遗传机制，酶功能和相关主题。该设施在研究生教育，X射线晶体学和结构生物学培训研讨会以及教师，博士后研究员，研究生和本科生的培训中发挥着核心作用。该仪器促进了来自波多黎各圣胡安的四个研究中心和美国著名研究机构的研究人员的合作，其共同主题是通过使用X射线晶体学确定结构来解决重要问题。 参与这一项目的教师积极参与培训波多黎各大学人数不足的少数民族学生。MXCF将继续促进波多黎各大学科学界之间的高质量，协作结构生物学研究的扩展，加强UPR-里奥皮德拉斯和波多黎各内外的其他机构内的研究人员之间的多学科合作。本科生，研究生，博士后研究员和教师将通过一门新课程和一系列研讨会接受大分子结晶和结构测定的现代方法的培训，其中包括新获得的仪器的实践经验。这些研究的结果将通过学生和教师在区域和国家会议上的演讲以及通过在同行评审期刊上发表来传播。

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.