INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION IN CHEMISTRY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL PROBES FOR HOPANOID FUNCTION

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This International Collaboration in Chemistry (ICC) award in the Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP) program in the Division of Chemistry, supports collaborative work by Professor Dianne K. Newman (Caltech/HHMI) in the United States, and Professor Stuart Conway (University of Oxford) in the UK, who is supported by the EPSRC to develop new chemical probes and apply chemical techniques to investigate the biological function of hopanoids, steroid surrogates in bacteria. Specifically, they will create probes to be used in in vitro and in vivo experiments studying the effects of hopanoids on membrane curvature, their sub-cellular localization and identify their protein binding partners. Prof. Newman's laboratory has been developing R. palustris into a model system for the study of hopanoid cell biology for over seven years. She and her research group bring experience in bacterial physiology, genetics, biochemistry and cell biology to the project. Prof. Conway's laboratory has been developing small molecule probes for biological systems for eight years. He brings experience in synthetic organic chemistry applied to biological problems. Thus, the expertise of the researchers is complementary and synergistic. The broader impacts of the proposal are significant and range from the interdisciplinary training of postdocs to providing us with key tools to understand hopanoid cell biology. The investigator at Caltech/HHMI recruits undergraduate minority students to participate in this project over the summer to further diversify the scientific community. In addition, both researchers regularly participate in outreach efforts to the general public.