INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION IN CHEMISTRY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHEMICAL PROBES FOR HOPANOID FUNCTION

该国际化学合作（ICC）奖在化学系生命过程化学（CLP）项目中，支持美国Dianne K. Newman教授（加州理工学院/HHMI）和英国Stuart Conway教授（牛津大学）的合作工作，后者在EPSRC的支持下开发新的化学探针和应用化学技术来研究细菌中类固醇替代品hopanoids的生物学功能。具体来说，他们将创建用于体外和体内实验的探针，研究hopanoids对膜曲率的影响，它们的亚细胞定位和识别它们的蛋白质结合伙伴。纽曼教授的实验室七年多来一直致力于将palustris发展成为藿类细胞生物学研究的模型系统。她和她的研究小组为该项目带来了细菌生理学、遗传学、生物化学和细胞生物学方面的经验。康威教授的实验室八年来一直致力于为生物系统开发小分子探针。他带来了将合成有机化学应用于生物问题的经验。因此，研究人员的专业知识是互补和协同的。该提案的广泛影响是重大的，从博士后的跨学科培训到为我们提供理解类hopanoid细胞生物学的关键工具。加州理工学院/HHMI的研究人员在夏季招募少数民族本科生参与该项目，以进一步使科学界多样化。此外，两位研究人员定期参与向公众推广的努力。

This International Collaboration in Chemistry (ICC) award in the Chemistry of Life Processes (CLP) program in the Division of Chemistry, supports collaborative work by Professor Dianne K. Newman (Caltech/HHMI) in the United States, and Professor Stuart Conway (University of Oxford) in the UK, who is supported by the EPSRC to develop new chemical probes and apply chemical techniques to investigate the biological function of hopanoids, steroid surrogates in bacteria. Specifically, they will create probes to be used in in vitro and in vivo experiments studying the effects of hopanoids on membrane curvature, their sub-cellular localization and identify their protein binding partners. Prof. Newman's laboratory has been developing R. palustris into a model system for the study of hopanoid cell biology for over seven years. She and her research group bring experience in bacterial physiology, genetics, biochemistry and cell biology to the project. Prof. Conway's laboratory has been developing small molecule probes for biological systems for eight years. He brings experience in synthetic organic chemistry applied to biological problems. Thus, the expertise of the researchers is complementary and synergistic. The broader impacts of the proposal are significant and range from the interdisciplinary training of postdocs to providing us with key tools to understand hopanoid cell biology. The investigator at Caltech/HHMI recruits undergraduate minority students to participate in this project over the summer to further diversify the scientific community. In addition, both researchers regularly participate in outreach efforts to the general public.