PROTEIN SEQUENCING & ANALYSIS EQUIPMENT

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This application is to purchase equipment to upgrade the Protein Analysis and peptide Synthesis Core Facility of the UAB Cancer Center. The instrumentation currently available for identification and quantitation of PTH amino acids from the Applied Biosystems Gas-Phase Sequencer and amino acids from hydrolysates does not meet the current needs of faculty in the Schools of Medicine and Dentistry in speed, sensitivity, quantitation, or in reliability. The specific research projects affected, all of which are funded by N.I.H. and located in the Medical Center at U.A.B., include studies in the broad areas of Virology (structure and variation of antigenic sites of influenza virus, retrovirus assembly processes, mechanisms of immunosuppression by retroviruses, including models for AIDS), Proteoglycan Structure (definition of functions of cartilage components and proteoglycans which interact with lipoproteins in atherosclerosis), Protein Crystallography (mechanism of action of toxins which act by opening or closing sodium channels, drug design), immunology (characterization of proteins which are involved in B cell differentiation as markers for neoplastic B cells), and Regulation of Gene Expression (control of pyrimidine biosynthesis in E. coli). All these projects involve analyzing proteins which are difficult to purify, and the investigators are spending excessive time and money trying to obtain sufficient protein to get results with the obsolete instrumentation currently available at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The new equipment will significantly improve sensitivity, reliability and efficiency of the Protein Analysis and Peptide Synthesis Core Facility, and thus enhance the research output of NIH-funded projects at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.