This award is for the acquisition of a state-of-the-art Beckman ProteomeLab XL-I analytical ultracentrifuge (AUC) to support multidisciplinary research on biomacromolecules at Hunter College, and at the City University of New York (CUNY, one of the largest urban universities, to which Hunter college is affiliated). The AUC instrument will complement the existing shared instrument facilities (Mass Spec facility and NMR facility) at Hunter and further support the CUNY initiative for Macromolecular Assembly. Applications of AUC technology have contributed to basic understandings of the thermodynamic and hydrodynamic properties of macromolecules in solution. The user group of the instrument consists of faculty members from the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biology of Hunter College, from two other campuses of CUNY and from Princeton University. All of the users are engaged in quantitative studies of biological macromolecules, and they bring a broad spectrum of backgrounds and interests to the investigation of macromolecular properties and their applications. Areas under investigation by the users are 1) assembly of collagen triple helices, 2) oligomerization states of regulatory proteins and of intramembrane proteins, 3) protein-RNA interactions, 4) aggregation and conformational changes of fungal Adhesin proteins during cellular aggregation 5) structural investigation of plant cuticular polymers and 6) design of functional nanotubes based on molecular recognition of biomolecules. The AUC instrument will allow the research community to more effectively pursue their studies of biological systems, to explore exciting new applications of biopolmers in nanotechnology, while also promot the teaching, training and learning of the graduate and undergraduate students.
Hunter College is a minority serving institution; in addition, nearly 70% of the undergraduate students at Hunter are female. All the faculty members of the AUC user group are actively involved in undergraduate and graduate teaching; most of them are currently mentoring minority students in their research labs. Over the years, about 250 minority students have acquired research experience in biology and related fields; about 75 have gone on to earn a PhD degree and 15 of them have subsequently taken tenure-track positions. The acquisition of an AUC instrument will further attract students from underrepresented groups and female students to science by providing them with access to this state-of -the-art technology. The research activities and collaborations fostered by the acquisition of the AUC instrument will provide a productive environment for students, both graduate and undergraduate, to understand research subjects in a broad context, complementing and extending beyond the textbooks and classroom presentations. Experiences gained in such research activities will prepare them to succeed in a work environment (both in industry and in academics) that is increasingly dependent on and driven by technologies and to meet the challenges of the future.
