The central goal of the project proposed here is the acceleration of progress in structural studies of membrane proteins through the dissemination of information on a variety of biophysical techniques that have been successfully applied to membrane protein studies. The specific method that we propose for the dissemination of information is a workshop which we propose to hold October 13-18, 1990, on the campus of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. This workshop follows the two """"""""American Schools on the Crystallization of Membrane Proteins"""""""" held in December 1985, in Boulder, Colorado, and in October 1987, at the Argonne National Laboratory, and the conference on """"""""Experimental and Theoretical Aspects of the Interactions the Determine Protein Conformation"""""""" held in January 1989, at the National Institution of Health. LIke the first and second American Schools on the Crystallization of Membrane Proteins, we have chosen a workshop format, so that participants can receive hand-on experience with the methods under discussion. Like the conference on Protein Conformation, however, we will give the workshop greater breadth than its predecessors by including techniques-in addition to crystallization and diffraction methods-that have been successfully used for obtaining information about membrane protein structure. Four days of he workshop will focus on clusters of techniques: (1) detergents, membrane protein properties and purification, (2) membrane protein crystallization and diffraction methods, (3) spectroscopic analyses of membrane proteins, and (4) experimental and predictive methods for investigating membrane protein secondary structure. Each of those four days will have afternoon laboratories and/or demonstrations that compliment the subject matter of the morning lecture. The final morning of the conference will be devoted to in-depth reviews of several membrane proteins which have been studied by a variety of structural methods.
