NIH Director's Pioneer Award

我的长期目标是了解大分子拥挤对 通过获取蛋白质的原子水平信息来实现生物化学过程 实际的生物条件。为此，我的团队开创了细胞内核磁共振的先河。 我们已经展示了如何评估结构、量化动态和测量 在拥挤的条件下发现活的大肠杆菌细胞的稳定性 这项强大的新技术。现在，我们想要迈出下一步。 在先锋奖的支持下，我们将专注于在 真核细胞将研究神经退行性疾病中的两个关键蛋白质 天生无序的蛋白质，a-突触核蛋白和tau。这些蛋白质是 优秀的候选人不仅因为他们的疾病相关性，而且还因为 因为我们知道大分子拥挤对 无序蛋白质的性质。 我们对蛋白质结构和功能的了解在 过去的100年里。我们已经从思考扮演什么角色(如果有的话)取得了进展， 多肽在细胞中发挥作用，在原子水平上解开机制 酶和蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用的分子基础 了解人类疾病。 我们积累的知识财富很大程度上来自于体外研究 在与生物学中发现的条件大不相同的条件下进行的。为 例如，大多数蛋白质行为的生化检查都是在 浓度在每毫升？克到毫克之间，但细胞内部，大多数 蛋白质发挥作用，其蛋白质浓度为每毫升300毫克。 因此，我们的知识来自于在遥远的条件下获得的数据 从生理学和理论上预测这些差异可以有 对生物物理参数的影响非常大。走出试管 通过使用核磁共振在活的真核细胞中进行真正的活体研究 光谱学是蛋白质化学的下一个前沿。

My long term goal is to understand the effects of macromolecular crowding on biochemical processes by acquiring atomic-level information on proteins under actual biological conditions. To this end, my group has pioneered in-cell NMR. We have shown how to assess structure, quantify dynamics, and measure stability under the crowded conditions found in living Escherichia coli cells using this powerful new technique. Now, we want to take the next step. With support from a Pioneer Award, we will focus on using in-cell NMR in eukaryotic cells to study two key proteins in neurodegenerative diseases, the intrinsically disordered proteins, a-synuclein and tau. These proteins are excellent candidates not only because of their disease relevance, but also because we know that macromolecular crowding has extremely large effects on the properties of disordered proteins. Our understanding of protein structure and function has grown enormously in the last 100 years. We have progressed from pondering what role, if any, polypeptides play in the cell, to unraveling, at the atomic level, the mechanisms of enzymes and the molecular bases of protein-protein interactions vital to understanding human disease. Our accumulating wealth of knowledge has largely come from in vitro studies performed under conditions far different from those found in biology. For example, most biochemical examinations of protein behavior are performed at concentrations in the ?g-to-mg-per-mL range, but the insides of cells, where most proteins perform their work, have protein concentrations of >300 mg per mL. Thus, our knowledge comes from data acquired under conditions that are far from physiological relevant, and theory predicts these differences can have extremely large effects on biophysical parameters. Moving beyond the test tube by performing truly in vivo studies in living eukaryotic cells by using NMR spectroscopy is the next frontier in protein chemistry.