STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY CORE

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. The Structural Biology core covers the two methods most widely used in the structural biology of proteins, namely biomacromolecular X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); both facilities are housed in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Because of the significant overlap between the scientific goals of the COBRE and those of two major NIH initiatives, the Structural Biology component of the NIH Roadmap and the Protein Structure Initiative, a structural biology capability is essential to the COBRE. The X-ray crystallography capability in the Core is the only macromolecular crystallography facility on campus and serves labs investigating structure-function relations of proteins. The NMR facility is much broader, but the COBRE focus is on only biological NMR, for which one instrument provides the bulk of the services. An additional feature of the NMR structural biology activity is the new methodology being developed; two NMR spectroscopists are among the COBRE faculty, and research in their labs is currently supported by COBRE pilot project grants. Support for the Structural Biology Core is for partial funding of postdoctoral staff, maintenance contracts and supplies.