Acquisition of an X-ray Generator/Detector System to Support NIH Research

 描述（由申请人提供）：格鲁吉亚大学有一个强大的和不断增长的结构生物学社区，聘请了两名新教师，并资助了具有挑战性的建议。为了满足日益增长的结构需求，解决UGA研究的主要瓶颈（缺乏内部X射线系统），并提高UGA结构生物学的整体生产力，我们建议购买一个现代化的X射线数据收集系统，包括：1）微焦点X射线发生器; 2）测角仪; 3）光子计数探测器; 4）低温冷却系统，以取代我们的老化的X射线系统，已经关闭了三年多。该系统将允许自2012年以来首次进行内部筛查和数据收集。它将有助于从较小的晶体和具有较大单位细胞的晶体中收集数据，并将提供一种具有成本效益的方法来维护这一重要资源，该资源由十几位富有成效的研究人员共享。新仪器的能力和性能将被用来解决各种重要的生物医学研究课题。这些包括蛋白质化学的一般问题，结构生物学的方法开发，糖蛋白和糖生物学，翻译后修饰，激酶调节，转录，视网膜通透性，钙信号，病毒生物学，铁硫簇组装，膜蛋白相互作用，内毒素受体相互作用，发育生物学等。该仪器将对美国国立卫生研究院支持的UGA生物医学研究项目产生直接和持久的影响，这些项目涉及癌症、糖尿病、败血症、贫血、共济失调、细菌和病毒感染等领域。具体好处包括：提高生产力：X射线系统将使我们能够在将晶体发送到同步加速器之前快速筛选晶体，从而腾出我们现在用于筛选的宝贵光束时间。与我们目前的系统相比，新的X射线衍射系统将允许我们筛选较小的晶体和具有较大晶胞的晶体。内部：数据收集：质量提高的数据集将比以前更快地从更小的晶体中收集。该系统还将为低优先级项目提供数据，并在APS关闭时提供数据。提高竞争力：通过解决目前的结构生物学在UGA的X射线系统的瓶颈将导致更多的用户，更多的数据，更多的结果和UGA在吸引最好的学生，教师和资金增加竞争力。节省费用。采用更节能的系统，基础设施和维护成本将大大降低。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Georgia has a strong and growing structural biology community with two new faculty hired and challenging proposals funded. To meet increasing demand for structures, address a major bottleneck to UGA research (the lack of an in-house X-ray system) and to increase the overall productivity of UGA structural biology we propose to purchase a modern X-ray data collection system consisting of: 1) a microfocus X-ray generator; 2) goniometer; 3) photon counting detector; 4) cryo-cooling system to replace our aging X-ray system which has been down for over three years. The system will allow in-house screening and data collection for the first time since 2012. It will facilitate data collection fro smaller crystals and those with large unit cells, and will provide a cost effective approach to maintaining this vital resource that is shared among more than a dozen productive researchers. The capabilities and performance of the new instrumentation will be exploited to tackle a diverse collection of important biomedical research topics. These include general issues in protein chemistry, methods development for structural biology, glycoproteins and glycobiology, post-translational modification, kinase regulation, transcription, retinal permeability, calcium signalig, virus biology, iron-sulfur cluster assembly, membrane-protein interactions, endotoxin-receptor interactions, developmental biology, and others Thus, the instrument will have an immediate and lasting impact on UGA biomedical research programs supported by NIH in areas such as cancer, diabetes, sepsis, anemias, ataxias, bacterial and viral infections and many others. Specific benefits include: Increased productivity: The X-ray system will enable us to quickly screen crystals before sending them to the synchrotron freeing up valuable beam time that we now use for screening. Compared to our current system, new X-ray diffraction system will allow us to screen smaller crystals and crystals having larger unit cells. In- house: data collection: Datasets of improved quality will be collected much more rapidly and from smaller crystals than were previously possible. The system will also provide data for low priority projects and during times when the APS is down. Increased competitiveness: by addressing the current structural biology bottleneck at UGA the X-ray system will result in more users, more data, more results and increased competitiveness for UGA in attracting the best students, faculty and funding. Cost savings. Infrastructure and maintenance costs will be considerably lower with the more energy efficient system.