A circular dichroism spectropolarimeter for protein biophysics, self-assembly, and engineering.

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This grant will be used to provide a research-grade circular dichroism (CD) spectrophotometer allowing new avenues of protein science and engineering research at Dalhousie University. Proteins may either be in a spaghetti-like (“unfolded”) chain or they may have a defined, "folded" structure. CD spectroscopy allows a relatively fast and robust characterization of the amount of unfolded vs. folded protein present under a given set of conditions. Furthermore, the actual nature of the folded state is directly reflected in the CD spectrum. All four of the co-applicants and their current roster of 16 trainees, ranging from undergraduate students developing research expertise to senior postdoctoral fellows, will be able to immediately take advantage of this instrument for fundamental studies of proteins critical for life in diverse organisms including humans, fungi, and spiders.