STRUCTURAL MOLECULAR BIOLOGY PROGRAM

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The central theme of the Structural Molecular Biology (SM) Program is to utilize the modern methods of chemical and biochemical structural analysis to important cancer-related problems, as well as in using the structural information to direct the synthesis of novel chemotherapeutics. This perspective is especially important in translational areas in which molecular aspects of the cancer-promoting process are known. The immediate goals of the SM Program are to identify useful systems that might ultimately lead to advances in cancer treatment, and to analyze them using the range of technologies available. This means deducing the arrangement of amino acid side chains in the active sites of enzymes, following the dynamics of protein conformation in response to ligand binding, delineating the crucial characteristics necessary for the design of antibody-based drugs, or describing the architectures on which oncogenic viruses are founded. Function follows from structure, and modification of function lies at the heart of therapy. The SM Program has 19 Members, representing six Departments and five Schools, and has $2,615,535 in direct cancer-related peer-reviewed funding, one project of which is funded by NCI for a direct total of $249,099. In 2007, Members published a total of 55 publications with 24 of those being cancer-related of which 33% were inter- and 8% were intra-related.