Operations and Maintenance Support: UBC Regional Structural Biology Facility

结构生物学是生命科学的一个分支，旨在提供包括蛋白质、DNA、RNA和糖在内的生物分子的三维结构的原子级描述。这些结构信息对于理解这些生物分子在活细胞中的不同功能至关重要，并为跨越蛋白质工程到药物开发的应用提供了“分子蓝图”。现代结构生物学依赖于三种基础技术：用于研究中小型生物分子结构和运动的核磁共振（NMR）光谱学，用于确定各种蛋白质、核酸和碳水化合物的最高分辨率结构的x射线晶体学，以及用于近原子水平表征非常大的大分子复合物的低温电子显微镜。为了解决生命科学中最具挑战性的问题，这些互补技术中的每一项都依赖于先进的仪器和专家人员。

Structural biology is a branch of the Life Sciences that seeks to provide atomic-level descriptions of the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules, including proteins, DNA, RNA and sugars. This structural information is critical for understanding the diverse functions of these biomolecules in living cells, and provides a "molecular blueprint" for applications spanning protein engineering to drug development. Modern structural biology is dependent upon three cornerstone technologies: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for investigating the structures and motions of small to medium sized biomolecues, X-ray crystallography for determining the highest resolution structures of a wide range of proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates, and cryo-electron microscopy for near atomic level characterization of very large macromolecular complexes. Each of these complementary technologies relies on access to sophisticated instrumentation and expert personnel in order to solve the most challenging problems of the Life Sciences. The goal of this application is to obtain funding to sustain the efficient on-going operation and maintenance of the UBC Regional Structural Biology Facility, including salaries for senior technical staff. Built over the past 25 years, this facility consists of a suite of high-field solution and solid-state NMR spectrometers, X-ray crystallography equipment with high-throughput crystallization robotics, and a soon to be installed cutting-edge cryo-electron microscope. Collectively, this instrumentation forms a unique scientific resource, available nowhere else in western Canada. Housed within the UBC Department of Chemistry and the Life Sciences Institute, the Structural Biology Facility is used extensively by many researchers and their trainees from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver and Okanogan), Simon Fraser University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Northern British Columbia, as well as by collaborators at regional research institutes. This instrumentation has enabled these research teams to make fundamental discoveries including, among many others, elucidating the molecular mechanisms by which proteins mediate cell signalling and development, designing enzymes that function under harsh conditions for biotechnological processes, and determining the chemical structures of bioactive natural products with anti-cancer and anti-bacterial properties. Hands-on access to NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography equipment, with guidance from senior technical staff, has provided valuable structural biology training to a large cohort of undergraduate and graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Personnel with these skills are in high demand by the ever-growing Canadian biotechnology sector.