OPTICAL AND SPECTROSCOPIC STUDIES OF PROTEIN NUCLEATION AND GROWTH

努力开发用于生长蛋白质晶体的改进技术 已经被确定蛋白质晶体结构的需要所驱动， 医疗和制药应用。无法正常生长 具有足够尺寸和质量的单晶体是 蛋白质晶体学的更广泛应用。我们建议 研究在晶体中使用温度作为控制参数 蛋白质和其他生物分子的生长。将制定方法 使用氨基酸和简单的肽溶液。蛋白质适合 温度程序化生长实验将根据以下条件进行选择 公开的溶解度数据或在制备过程中获得的数据， 建议的研究。我们还建议研究非线性 氨基酸、肽和蛋白质溶液的光学响应 饱和度非线性光学研究的目的是 确定快速（100 fs - 100 ps）结构是否有变化 当生物分子开始聚集时， 晶体生长的初始阶段。这样就有可能研究 通过观察这些波动的动力学， 在晶体生长过程中。

Efforts to develop improved techniques for the growth of protein crystals have been driven by the need to determine protein crystal structures for medical and pharmaceutical applications. The inability to routinely grow single crystals of sufficient size and quality is a major roadblock to the wider application of protein crystallography. We propose to investigate the use of temperature as a control parameter in the crystal growth of proteins and other biomolecules. Methodology will be developed using amino acid and simple peptide solutions. Proteins suitable for temperature programmed growth experiments will be selected based upon either published solubility data or data obtained during the course of the proposed research. We also propose to investigate the nonlinear optical response of amino acid, peptide and protein solutions near saturation. The purpose of the nonlinear optical investigation is to determine if there are changes in fast (100 fs - 100 ps) structural fluctuations which occur as the biomolecules begin to aggregate in the initial stages of crystal growth. It may then be possible to study the onset of nucleation by looking at the dynamics of these fluctuations during the crystal growth process.