UPGRADE OF LASER FACILITY FOR THE STUDY OF FAST KINETICS

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Six research groups studying the structure, dynamics, and function of biopolymers and their interactions with small molecules - ligands and drugs - are applying for shared instrumentation for a Laser Facility for the Study of Fast Kinetics and Time Resolved Spectroscopy. The Facility will be used to investigate: 1) The mechanism of binding CO, O2, and NO to a variety of natural hemoglobins, both in relation to particular human pathologies and as a model of protein function in general, 2) The mechanism for binding such small ligands to model compounds which mimic hemoglobin, cytochrome P450, and other proteins in order to understand the role of particular prosthetic groups around active sites in proteins, 3) The structure of nucleic acids and their interactions with drugs as well as the dynamics of nucleic acid motion, which may regulate activity and is affected by drugs, 4) The molecular form of antipsychotic drugs, whose amphipathic molecular structures had suggested a simple explanation for binding to membranes, but whose active form now seems to be something quite different, 5) The basic features of molecular reactions in fluid phases, which are not really known in any detail for any system but which now can be studied at a truly fundamental level in real biological systems, and 6) The structure and function of peptide hormones and synthetic analogs. The equipment requested includes components to expand and upgrade a recently established facility in order to provide broader spectral range, better time resolution, and more accessibility all the users. When these additions are added to existing components, the facility will be able to measure ultraviolet, visible and near infrared time-resolved spectra and kinetics of reactions using absorption, luminescence, and Raman scattering from the comparatively slow (approximately millionth of a second) times characteristic of the activity of large polymers and cellular units down to times below a trillionth of a second, the time scale on which the most clementary and fundamental molecular processes occur.