CNIC: US-UK-Czech Republic Research Planning for Collaboration on Aperiodic Protein Crystallography

CNIC：美国-英国-捷克共和国非周期性蛋白质晶体学合作研究计划

• 批准号: 1404976
• 负责人: Gloria Borgstahl
• 金额: $ 6.3万
• 依托单位: University of Nebraska Medical Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1404976&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CNIC; US; UK; Czech; Republic

The research planning visit with expert scientists in the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic will initiate cooperative research intended to advance knowledge in the atomic visualization of the macromolecules of life. Protein crystallography uses X-rays and crystallized proteins to provide detailed pictures of biologically-important large molecules. This project development effort is focused on a type of crystal that currently cannot be imaged as the needed software does not exist. The team's ultimate goal is to develop methods to solve these important structures and, for this, the international collaboration is essential. This catalytic collaboration is expected to impact the field of structural biology in a fundamental way by providing new tools to solve structures that currently can not be deciphered. The research is integrated with education to provide graduate and undergraduate students with early career research experiences abroad. Technical Abstract:This purpose of this visit is to initiate and plan the development of software for the refinement of incommensurately-modulated aperiodic protein crystal structures. The U.S. PI and two U.S. student researchers will visit Dr. Garib Murshudov at Cambridge University, in the UK, who is a leading authority in periodic protein crystal structure refinement, and author of the REFMAC software package. Then, they will visit Dr. Václav Petrícek, Dr. Michal Dusek and Dr. Lukás Palatinus at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, who have written JANA, an aperiodic crystallography software package that is used to refine small molecule structures in (3+1)D superspace. To solve the structures from (3+1)D modulated protein crystals, software is needed that includes components from REFMAC and JANA. The research planning visit should establish the balanced and expert international collaboration needed to achieve this goal. After the research plannning stage, the principal investigator intends to apply for follow-on research support through NSF programs in Molecular and Cellular Biosciences.

英国和捷克共和国的专家科学家的研究计划访问将启动合作研究，旨在推进生命大分子原子可视化的知识，蛋白质晶体学使用 X 射线和结晶蛋白质来提供具有重要生物学意义的详细图片。该项目的开发工作重点是一种目前无法成像的晶体，因为所需的软件不存在，该团队的最终目标是开发解决这些重要结构的方法，为此，国际合作至关重要。 。这催化合作有望通过提供新的工具来解决目前无法破译的结构，从而从根本上影响结构生物学领域。该研究与教育相结合，为研究生和本科生提供早期职业研究经验。 ：此次访问的目的是启动和计划开发用于细化非通约调制非周期性蛋白质晶体结构的软件。美国 PI 和两名美国学生研究人员将拜访 Garib Murshudov 博士。英国剑桥大学周期性蛋白质晶体结构精修领域的权威、REFMAC软件包的作者随后，他们将拜访该研究所的Václav Petrícek博士、Michal Dusek博士和Lukás Palatinus博士。捷克共和国科学院物理学博士，他编写了 JANA，这是一个非周期晶体学软件包，用于细化 (3+1)D 超空间中的小分子结构来解决。 (3+1)D 调制蛋白质晶体的结构，需要包含 REFMAC 和 JANA 组件的软件。 研究计划访问应建立实现这一目标所需的平衡和专家国际合作。研究人员打算通过 NSF 分子和细胞生物科学项目申请后续研究支持。