A Lucille P. Markey Award was granted in 1987 to enhance structural studies of biological 1 macromolecules at Purdue University. It provided $6.5 million over five years for hiring new faculty; upgrading laboratory facilities; hiring of laboratory support staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students; funds for service contracts; and funds for supporting occasional senior scientists taking their sabbatical leave at Purdue. Subsequently, the grant was extended with a $500,000 supplement. Continuation of the support for the shared facilities established by the Markey Award, and later a Keck foundation grant, has since been partially provided by two consecutive (1994 to 1998 and 1999 to 2004) NIH Program Proiect grants (PPG) in recognition of the ongoing structural virology investigations. In July 2003, we were awarded another major PPG in response to the NIH call for biodefense research, which provides for considerable improvement and extension of our virology facilities. However, it does not support the investigation of non-icosahedral, ssRNA, enveloped viruses nor the continuation of certain specific projects related to our earlier investigations of the icosahedral, ssRNA, enveloped alpha- and faviviruses. Therefore, Richard Kuhn and Michael Rossmann are now seeking a smaller, third, competitive renewal of the earlier PPG to support both our new direction into the structure of non-icosahedral viruses and to continue our previous studies. The core component is for partial support of the shared tissue culture, electron microscopy, and computing facilities. These facilities are shared with other current members of the Purdue Structural Biology Group who contribute proportionally to maintain these services. The laboratories of Richard Kuhn and Michael Rossmann are adjacent to each other in the basement of Lilly Hall of Life Sciences. They are also close to the X-ray and electron microscopy facilities. In addition, the close proximity of our laboratories to those of other members of the Purdue Structural Biology Group is critically important to our work. Of special relevance are the laboratories of Tim Baker (electron microscopy), Barbara Golden (RNA structure), Carol Post (NMR), Janet Smith (X-ray crystallography), Jeff Bolin (X-ray crystallography), and Cynthia Stauffacher (X-ray crystallography), as well as of William Cramer (membrane proteins).
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