GONADOTROPIN RECEPTORS

我的职业目标一直是在一个环境中获得终身职位 这将促进我的研究项目的发展。很明显， 爱荷华大学生理学和生物物理学系提供 这样的环境。我的研究主要集中在黄体生成素/卵泡刺激素和卵泡刺激素 受体，其功能在生殖生理中起着关键作用。 我们希望逐步更详细地了解这些结构 受体及其作用机制 监管。由于我们最近的能力，这些研究得到了很大的进步 克隆大鼠黄体生成素/卵泡刺激素受体和卵泡刺激素受体基因。因此，我们现在有 解决重要生理学问题的实验工具 关于这些受体的生物学。具体地说，总体上 我为我的实验室设定的未来五年的具体目标是 检查卵巢和睾丸的诱导和/或调节 转录和翻译水平的黄体生成素/卵泡刺激素和卵泡刺激素受体； 克隆、表达和鉴定黄体生成素/卵泡刺激素及其5‘侧翼区 为了研究FSH受体基因的细胞特异性和 激素调节这些受体的表达；以及(3)MAP功能 黄体生成素/卵泡刺激素和卵泡刺激素受体结构域的构建与鉴定 受体的突变型和嵌合型。 从这些研究中获得的信息将对我们的 对睾丸和卵巢功能的调节也有了解 人类的生育能力和不孕不育。他们还将为我们的 G蛋白偶联受体的作用机制 将细胞外事件转化为细胞内信号。 正在请求薪资支持，以减少以下时间 我有义务花在教学和委员会的职能上，让我 把我更多的时间(至少80%)投入到实验室。这将是 对维持我正在进行的研究的势头至关重要，因此 进一步帮助我成为一名独立的调查员。

My career goals have been to attain a tenured position in an environment that will foster the growth of my research program. It is clear that the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at The University of Iowa offers such an environment. My research has focused upon the LH/CG and FSH receptors, whose functions play a pivotal role in reproductive physiology. We hope to learn in progressively greater detail the structure of these receptors and the mechanisms underlying their mechanism of action and regulation. These studies have been greatly advanced by our recent ability to clone the cDNA's for the rat LH/CG and FSH receptors. Thus, we now have the experimental tools to address important physiological questions concerning the biology of these receptors. Specifically, the overall specific aims that I have set for my laboratory for the next five years are to (1) examine the induction and/or regulation of ovarian and testicular LH/CG and FSH receptors at the levels of transcription and translation; (2) clone, express, and characterize the 5' flanking regions of the LH/CG and FSH receptor genes in order to study the cell-specific and hormonally-regulated expression of these receptors; and (3) map functional domains of the LH/CG and FSH receptors by constructing and characterizing mutant and chimeric forms of the receptors. The information gained from these studies will significantly aid in our understanding of the regulation of testicular and ovarian function, as well as human fertility and infertility. They will also contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms by which G protein-coupled receptors transmit extracellular events into intracellular signals. Salary support is being requested in order to reduce the amount of time I am obligated to spend in teaching and committee functions, allowing me to devote more of my time (at least 80%) to the laboratory. This will be critical for sustaining the momentum of my ongoing research, and thus further help establish myself as an independent investigator.