A new x-ray facility will be established to support contemporary research in structural biology. A rotating anode, area detector, and VAX computer will be acquired to support interdisciplinary research in biotechnology. Support will also be provided for writing new computer software or code for structural biology. Among the projects that will utilize the new equipment for biotechnology are the design of new proteins and the prediction of protein structure from sequence information. Other research projects include the three dimensional molecular structure of the enzyme ATP synthetase from mitochondria, a nasal epithelium receptor or odorant binding protein, the enzyme quinone reductase, staphyloccal nuclease, genetically engineered mutant staphyloccal nuclease species, and of DNA binding proteins. Also, artificial or rule-based model building systems will be used to explore modifications or existing proteins.
