MRI-R2: Acquisition of High-throughput Crystallization Instrumentation to Enhance the Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility of the University of Puerto Rico

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。这一重大研究仪器-回收和再投资(MRI-R2)奖资助购买高通量结晶仪器，以增强波多黎各大学(UPR)的大分子X射线结晶学设施(MXCF)。该设施的长期目标是为波多黎各大学带来富有成效的结构生物学研究部分，这将对广泛的研究工作产生影响。该设施的结构生物学研究人员正在调查广泛的项目，包括蛋白质序列可变性的非遗传机制、酶功能和相关主题。该设施在研究生教育、X射线结晶学和结构生物学培训研讨会以及对教师、博士后研究员、研究生和本科生的培训方面发挥着核心作用。这种仪器促进了来自波多黎各圣胡安的四个研究中心和美国著名研究机构的研究人员的合作，共同的主题是通过使用X射线结晶学确定结构来解决重要问题。参与这一项目的教职员工正积极参与波多黎各大学一大批少数族裔学生的培训工作。MXCF将继续推动波多黎各大学科学界开展高质量的协作结构生物学研究，加强普遍定期审议-里奥皮德拉斯和波多黎各国内外其他机构的调查人员之间的多学科合作。本科生、研究生、博士后研究员和教职员工将通过一门新课程和一系列研讨会接受现代大分子结晶和结构测定方法的培训，其中将包括新获得的仪器的实践经验。这些研究的结果将通过学生和教职员工在区域和国家会议上的陈述以及通过在同行评议的期刊上发表来传播。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This Major Research Instrumentation-Recovery and Reinvestment (MRI-R2) award funds the acquisition of high-throughput crystallization instrumentation to enhance the Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography Facility (MXCF) of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). The long-term goal of this facility is to bring a productive structural biology research component to the University of Puerto Rico, which will impact a wide range of research efforts. Structural biology researchers at the facility are investigating a wide scope of projects, including non-genetic mechanisms of protein sequence variability, enzyme function, and related topics. The facility plays a central role in graduate education, training workshops in x-ray crystallography and structural biology, and training of faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates. This instrumentation promotes collaboration of investigators from four research centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and prestigious research institutes in the US with the common theme of solving important problems through structure determination using x-ray crystallography. The faculty involved in this project are actively engaged in training efforts with a large population of underrepresented minority students at the University of Puerto Rico. The MXCF will continue to promote the expansion of high-quality, collaborative structural biology research among the University of Puerto Rico scientific community, strengthening multidisciplinary collaborations among investigators within UPR-Río Piedras and other institutions inside and outside Puerto Rico. Undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty will be trained in modern methods of macromolecular crystallization and structure determination via a new course and a workshop series that will include hands-on experience with the newly acquired instrumentation. Results from these studies will be disseminated by student and faculty presentations at regional and national meetings, and through publication in peer-reviewed journals.