SYNCHROTRON X-RAY STUDIES OF BIOMOLECULAR MATERIALS

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中的一个 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金， 因此可在其他CRISP条目中表示。所列机构为 研究中心，而研究中心不一定是研究者所在的机构。 这些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，并导致纳米至微米尺度的分级超分子结构。生物聚合物组件将分别使用X射线毛细管和微通道表征粉末和定向样品。在微通道中的定向组件的同步加速器结构的研究应揭示的交联，或在神经丝的情况下，突出的侧臂蛋白质的排序的性质，并提供重要的洞察丝间相互作用的起源。该提案？的独特的方法结合了同步加速器x射线散射，产生统计平均结构的倒易空间，和真实空间成像与电子和光学显微镜，探测和解决非晶体结构的生物大分子组装（蛋白质晶体学技术不适用）。所学到的概念应该导致开发先进的纳米尺度材料在电子，化学和制药工业中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.