REU Site: Program in Structural Biology at the University of Oklahoma

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This REU Site award to the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman, OK, will support the training of 10 students per summer in a 9-week program during the summers of 2015-2017. The REU program is open to all undergraduate students who are citizens, nationals or permanent residents of the United States. Students trained in the program will gain skills in lab research, develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, understand the process of science, and be able to communicate their research results to their peers and the general public. Students will have an opportunity to present their results at a national conference. The REU program provides an experience to students that is typically not available to them at their home institutions. Students from schools with limited opportunities for research and from underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply.This REU Site program will focus on research that involves a structural biology approach to answering biological questions. Example projects include structure-function investigations of 1) small, drug-like molecules and their cellular targets, 2) transcription regulation in select methanogens, 3) ligand interactions in heme metalloproteins, 4) the role of promoter-RNA (pRNA) in the bacteriophage packaging motor, 5) the role of enzymes that act in plant cell-wall synthesis, and 6) protein-protein interactions in a His-Asp phosphorelay signaling pathway from yeast. During the 9-week program, students will learn about the application process for graduate school, and they will learn about possible career opportunities by going on field trips to different research facilities throughout central Oklahoma. At the end of the program, students will present their research in a poster and/or oral presentation. A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students are required to be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by contacting the PI (Dr. Paul A. Sims; psims@ou.edu) or co-PI (Dr. Anthony W. G. Burgett; anthony.burgett@ou.edu).