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

化学系生命过程化学（CLP）项目的化学国际合作（ICC）奖，支持Dianne K教授的合作工作。美国的纽曼（加州理工学院/HHMI）和英国的斯图尔特·康威教授（牛津大学），他们在EPSRC的支持下开发了新的化学探针，并应用化学技术研究了细菌中类固醇替代物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，并识别它们的蛋白质结合伴侣。纽曼教授的实验室一直在开发R. palustris转化为模式系统，用于hopanoid细胞生物学的研究超过七年。 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。 康威教授的实验室已经为生物系统开发了八年的小分子探针。他带来了应用于生物问题的合成有机化学的经验。因此，研究人员的专门知识是互补和协同的。 该提案的更广泛影响是显著的，从博士后的跨学科培训到为我们提供了解hopanoid细胞生物学的关键工具。 加州理工学院/HHMI的研究人员招募本科少数民族学生参加这个项目在夏天，以进一步多元化的科学界。 此外，这两名研究人员还定期参加面向公众的外联活动。

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.