SYNCHROTRON X-RAY STUDIES OF BIOMOLECULAR MATERIALS

该子项目是利用NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为中心，不一定是研究者所在机构。随着人类基因组计划的完成和蛋白质组学时代的到来，生物技术和生物学界开始了一项艰巨的任务，即了解大量相互作用蛋白质的功能。我们将关注不同蛋白质之间的集体相互作用，这些相互作用导致构成细胞骨架的丝状蛋白质中从纳米到微米尺度的结构的形成。生物分子组件将在X射线毛细管中以非常稀的混合物进行表征，以模拟体内条件，并在使用微机电系统（MEMS）方法制造的小规模微阵列中进行表征，其中包含高度对齐和相互作用的蛋白质。这些微阵列将被扫描，蛋白质-蛋白质结构和相互作用将被高强度同步加速器X射线源高精度探测。微通道的方法，我们建议使用应导致一个重要的新的结构探针的蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. With the completion of the Human Genome Project and the emerging proteomics era, the biotechnology and biology community is beginning the daunting task of understanding the functions of a large number of interacting proteins. We will be concerned with the collective interactions between different proteins that lead to the formation of structures, spanning lengths from the nanometer to the micrometer scale, in filamentous proteins, which constitute the cell cytoskeleton. The biomolecular assemblies will be characterized in very dilute mixtures in x-ray capillaries to mimic in vivo conditions, and in small-scale micro-arrays, fabricated using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) methods, containing highly aligned and interacting proteins. These micro-arrays will be scanned and protein-protein structures and interactions will be probed with high precision by the high intensity synchrotron x-ray source. The micro-channel methods that we propose to use should lead to an important new structural probe of protein-protein interactions.