UPRH Biomedical Research Improvement Program

描述（由申请人提供）：本SCORE应用程序的总体目标是在乌马考（UPRH）的波多黎各大学的物理和人力资源的升级，以增加和改善其生物医学研究活动。为实现这些主要目标，确定了以下目标：（1）提高普萨大学的生物医学研究能力;（2）增加普萨大学参与生物医学研究的自然科学系的数量以及与研究密集型机构进行生物医学研究合作的数量;（3）增加与研究密集型机构进行生物医学研究合作的数量;（4）增加UPRH向非MBRS校外生物医学研究机构提交的生物医学研究资助申请的数量;以及（5）提高UPRH的生物医学研究生产力。目标1将通过雇用一名全职技术人员来操作和维护我们最先进的MBRS资助设备来实现。目标2将从为我们的SCORE项目增加一名电化学家开始实现。该研究者在本申请中提交了一项生物医学研究提案，涉及使用自组装单分子层方法（SAM）开发膜蛋白结晶的新系统。 来自化学系的其他五名研究人员也在此申请中提交了研究提案。其中一个化学项目涉及酶对映体选择性的溶剂依赖性研究，目的是了解和改善酶在有机溶剂中的活性，稳定性和对映体选择性，用于生物相关化合物的小规模和大规模合成。第二个项目寻找开发新的吩噻嗪衍生物（神经活性化合物），具有较少的不良光细胞毒性作用，以及了解这些光细胞毒性作用的机制。第三个项目提出了改进方法的设计，用于酯选择性制备具有潜在神经作用的各种胺。第四个化学项目涉及使用同位素标记沿着主要氨基酸序列系统研究蛋白质中不同的发夹结构，以了解蛋白质折叠动力学。第五个化学子项目将研究醌在NO还原和生产增强中的作用以及烷基化醌的肿瘤靶向毒性。预计这些项目的发展将提高产生更多的研究建议应用到其他校外机构，更多的研究合作和同行评审的出版物与我们的教师和学生在国际生物医学研究界的认可随之增加的可能性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The general aim of this SCORE application is the upgrade of physical and human resources at the University of Puerto Rico at Humacao (UPRH) in order to increase and improve its biomedical research activity. The following goals are set in pursuing these major aims: (1) to increase the biomedical research capacity at UPRH; (2) to increase the number of natural sciences faculty at UPRH involved in biomedical research and the number of biomedical research collaborations with research-intensive institutions; (3) to increase the number of biomedical research collaborations with research-intensive institutions; (4) to increase the number of submitted biomedical research grant applications from UPRH to non-MBRS extramural biomedical research agencies; and (5) to increase the biomedical research productivity at UPRH. Goal 1 will be achieved by hiring a full-time technician for the operation and maintenance of our most sophisticated MBRS-funded equipment. Goal 2 will be accomplished starting with the addition of an electrochemist to our SCORE project. This investigator is submitting a biomedical research proposal in this application dealing with developing a new system for membrane protein crystallization, using the self-assembled monolayers methods (SAMs). Five other research investigators from the Chemistry department are also submitting research proposals in this application. One of these Chemistry projects deals with a study of the solvent dependence of enzyme enantioselectivity with the purpose of understanding and improving enzyme's activity, stability and enantioselectivity in organic solvents for the small and large scale synthesis of bio-relevant compounds. A second project looks for the developing of new phenothiazine derivatives (neurologically active compounds) with less undesirable photocytotoxic effects, as well as understanding the mechanisms these photocytotoxic effects. A third project proposes the design of improved methods for the estereoselective preparation of diverse kind of amines with potential neurological effects. A fourth Chemistry project deals with a systematic study of different ¿-hairpin structures in proteins using isotopic labeling along the primary amino acid sequence to understand protein folding dynamics. A fifth Chemistry subproject will study quinone roles in NO reduction and production enhancements and tumor-targeted toxicity of alkylating quinones. It is expected that the development of these projects will improve the possibilities of producing more research proposal applications to other extramural agencies, more research collaborations and an increase in peer-reviewed publications with the concomitant recognition of our faculty and students in the international biomedical research community.