SYNCHROTRON X-RAY STUDIES OF BIOMOLECULAR MATERIALS

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。该实验旨在阐明控制细胞骨架丝状蛋白（生物聚合物神经丝、微管和丝状肌动蛋白）之间相互作用的关键参数，并导致纳米到微米尺度的分层超分子结构。生物聚合物组件将分别使用x射线毛细管和微通道在粉末和定向样品中进行表征。微通道中定向组装的同步加速器结构研究应该揭示交联排序的本质，或者，在神经丝的情况下，突出的侧臂蛋白，并为丝间相互作用的起源提供重要的见解。该提案的独特方法结合了同步加速器x射线散射，在互反空间中产生统计平均结构，以及电子和光学显微镜的实空间成像，以探测和解决生物大分子组装的非晶体结构（蛋白质晶体学技术不适用）。所学到的概念将导致开发先进的纳米尺度材料，用于电子、化学和制药工业的纳米科学应用的令人兴奋的可能性。

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. The experiments aim to elucidate the key parameters that control the interactions between cytoskeletal filamentous proteins (the biopolymers neurofilaments, microtubules, and filamentous actin), and lead to hierarchical supramolecular structures on the nanometer to micron scale. The biopolymer assemblies will be characterized in powder and oriented samples using x-ray capillaries and microchannels, respectively. The synchrotron structure studies of oriented assemblies in microchannels should reveal the nature of the ordering of the cross-linking, or, in the case of neurofilaments, protruding sidearm proteins, and provide important insight into the origin of interfilament interactions. The proposal¿¿s unique approach combines synchrotron x-ray scattering, which yields statistically averaged structures in reciprocal space, and real-space imaging with electron and optical microscopy, to probe and solve non-crystalline structures of biomacromolecular assemblies (where protein crystallography techniques do not apply). The learned concepts should lead to the exciting possibility of developing advanced nanometer scale materials for nanoscience applications in the electronic, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries.