The overall goal of the Protein Core is to first provide atomic resolution structural and functional insight into the design and engineering of the proposed protein antigens from Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
The second aim i s to produce the antigens with high quality and quantity in an efficient and effective manner.
We aim to provide high- resolution structural information using X-ray Crystallography and/or Cryo-Electron Microscopy and we plan to express and purify large quantities of pure protein using our recently discovered SLAM protein secretion system. Proteins residing the outer membrane surface of Gram-negative bacterial pathogens provide a valuable target for the generation of antimicrobial therapeutics and prophylactics. In pathogens, many of the outer membrane proteins are required for either nutrient acquisition or host immune evasion and therefore are essential for host colonization or during invasive disease. At the bacterial cell surface, these outer membrane proteins provide surface accessible epitopes that can serve as antigens in the implementation of vaccines against these pathogens?thus an understanding of their structure and function provides useful insights into the development of new therapeutics against Gram-negative pathogens. Dr. Moraes' program vision is to provide an avenue to develop and produce new vaccine antigens and a novel vaccine production system. The microbiological tools, instrumentation and infrastructure available to Dr. Moraes and his collaborators allow him to be productive and successful at contributing to the structural biology of membrane proteins particularly as is relates to bacterial pathogenesis and vaccine design.
