Exploration of Membrane-Based Proteolytic Digestion for Studies of Protein Structure and Phosphorylation

在化学系化学测量和成像项目的支持下，密歇根州立大学的Merlin Bruening教授和他的团队将开发含酶的多孔膜，催化蛋白质的消化，以进行分析。 他们将研究通过膜的流速的变化如何影响消化产生的肽的长度。 大肽的形成对于发现与疾病（如癌症）相关的特定蛋白质修饰（包括磷酸化）是重要的。 对膜消化的控制也可以帮助阐明蛋白质结构，并检查结构如何响应某些药物或其他蛋白质。 这项研究如果成功，将扩展膜消化方法的实用性，并为翻译后修饰蛋白质的分析提供更好的工具。这项研究将涉及高中，本科和研究生水平的学生，包括那些代表性不足的群体。 一个关于质谱法蛋白质分析的高中教师讲习班将进一步扩大这些研究的影响。国际学生交流计划也在发展中，以进一步让学生接触不同的科学培训和文化环境。

With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Merlin Bruening at Michigan State University and his group will develop enzyme-containing porous membranes that catalyze digestion of proteins to enable their analysis. They will investigate how variation of the flow rate through the membranes affects the lengths of the peptides that result from digestion. Formation of large peptides is important for finding specific protein modifications including phosphorylation that are relevant to diseases such as cancer. Control over membrane digestion can also help elucidate protein structure and examine how structure changes in response to certain drugs or other proteins. The proposed research, if successful, will extend the utility of the membrane digestion approach and provide better tools for post-translational modified protein analysis. The research will involve students at high school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, including those from underrepresented groups. A high school teacher workshop on protein analysis by mass spectrometry will further expand the impact of these studies. An international student exchange program is also in development to further expose students to different scientfic training and cultural environments.