Development of a Facility for Image Analysis of Helical Polymers

首席研究员建议开发一个工作站、操作软件和方法，使研究人员能够分析无序螺旋聚合物的结构和动力学。该设施将使电子显微照片能够迅速数字化并存储在计算机中，以便图像可以以接近实时的速度进行处理，所有处理都通过光栅图形显示器进行交互。正在开发的软件将允许对数百张图像进行快速分析。大型图像统计数据库的组合及其相关参数将允许对图像子集进行平均。这些蛋白质聚合物的动力学模型可以从不同的构象中生成。这种紊乱，目前是结构确定的障碍，将被用来揭示这些分子如何随机波动和作为酶循环的一部分。生物结构的研究应该是这项技术的主要受益者之一。

The principal investigator proposes to develop a workstation, operating software, and methods that will allow researchers to analyze both the structure and dynamics of disordered helical polymers. The facility will enable electron micrographs to be rapidly digitized and stored in a computer so that the images may be processed at near real-time speeds, with all processing interactive via a raster graphic display. The software being developed will allow for rapid analysis of hundreds of images. Assemblage of large statistical data bases of images, and their associated parameters will allow for the averaging of subsets of images. Dynamical models of these protein polymers can then be generated from the different conformations. The disorder, which is presently an obstacle to structure determination, will be exploited to reveal how these molecules flucturate both randomly and as part of enzymatic cycles. The study of biological structures should be one of the major beneficiaries of this technology.