UNDERSTANDING THE DESIGN OF MOLECULAR MOTORS

描述（改编自摘要）：定向运动是定义之一 生命的特征。当我们怀疑某样东西是否有生命时，我们通常会检查 看看它是否在移动。在一个细胞中我们发现了惊人的 产生运动的最奇妙的系统。这些生物马达 值得研究的不仅是他们作为杰作的内在兴趣， “纳米技术”，而是因为它们的功能对正常健康至关重要。 基于微管的运动的重要例子包括染色体的运动 在细胞分裂过程中， 细胞器，以及从神经元细胞体到 遥远的终点 关于这些运动系统的基本信息有一个异常直接和 直接关系到人类健康。干扰 基于微管的能动系统在人类中具有治疗应用： 秋水仙碱，用于痛风性关节炎;长春新碱，长春碱和紫杉醇， 因其对多种肿瘤的抗有丝分裂作用而被使用; 灰黄霉素，一种抗真菌剂;以及其他。除了这些药用之外， 影响基于微管的能动装置的试剂对于 以同样重要的非治疗方式，例如 广泛用作杀虫剂和杀真菌剂。 这项研究的目标是发现，在3D原子结构方面， 作为微管分子马达的蛋白质产生运动，为什么 不同的马达以非常不同的方式运动。研究重点是两个 基于微管的马达，驱动蛋白和NCD，它们以相反的方向运动。 我们的目标是从这两个发动机开始，创建一个新发动机库 具有不同的运动特性，然后确定它们的结构， 来阐明区分生物学上的 运动行为的重要特征类别。

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from abstract): Directed movement is one of the defining characteristics of life. When we wonder if something is alive, we usually check to see if it is moving. Within a single cell we find an astounding collection of the most marvelous systems for producing motion. These biological motors are worthy of study not only for their intrinsic interest as masterpieces of "nanotechnology", but because their function is crucial for normal health. Important examples of microtubule-based motion include movement of chromosomes during cell division, the translocation of various intracellular membrane bound organelles, and the transport of materials from the cell body of neurons to their distant termini. Basic information about these motor systems has an unusually direct and immediate connection to human health. Agents that interfere with microtubule-based motile systems have therapeutic applications in humans: colchicine, used for in gouty arthritis; vincristine, vinblastine, and taxol, used for their anti-mitotic effects against a variety of neoplasms; griseofulvin, an anti-fungal agent; and others. Besides these medicinal uses, agents that affect the microtubule-based motile apparatus are significant for human health in equally important non-therapeutic ways, such as their widespread use as pesticides and fungicides. The goal of this research is to discover, in terms of 3D atomic structure, how proteins that act as microtubule-based molecular motors produce motion, and why different motors move in very different ways. The research focuses on two microtubule-based motors, kinesin and ncd, which move in opposite directions. The aim is to create, starting from these two motors, a library of new motors with different motile properties, then determine their structure, and thereby to elucidate the structural features that distinguish the biologically important characteristic classes of motile behavior.