This awards provides funds to an outstanding group of biochemists for the purchase and operation of instruments including a modern high field NMR spectrometer, an EPR spectrometer, related computing equipment, and equipment for synthesis and purification of peptides and other molecules. The group will use the equipment for a variety of studies aimed at elucidating the structures in solution of small DNAs and of certain proteins and antibiotics, the structure and dynamics of larger DNAs in solution, and metabolic pathways in some bacteria and fungi. The development and application of biophysical techniques, in particular that of EPR and 2-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, to studies of structure and behavior of macromolecules like DNA and protein is currently one of the most exiting areas of biological research. Although NMR instruments have been available for many years, it is only within the last few years that high field instruments with the requisite resolution and sensitivity for such studies have been developed. The Seattle group, which includes both junior and senior faculty of international reputation, has been at the forefront of these developments; ;they will continue to play an important role in application of these instruments to problems of great biological interest.
