UCSF has had a vibrant crystallography lab in the Department of Biochemistry. The successes over the last years encouraged the university to expand the Faculty Appointments in Structural Biology. In 1995, Brigitte Raumann, a Program in Biological Sciences Fellow, joined as an independent researcher. In 1996, Wendell Lim and Jonathan Weissman joined as Assistant Professors in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. This expansion, and the natural growth in numbers of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working the structural labs in Biochemistry, has virtually overwhelmed the X-ray diffraction and computer facilities at UCSF. In this proposal we present plans to augment the facilities for three dimensional experimental Structural Biology for the Department of Biochemistry and to equip a new lab with X-ray diffraction equipment and computers within the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology. The proposed newly equipped and updated labs, one in Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology and one in Biochemistry, are to be in their use and structure, equally accessible to all X-ray crystallographers at UCSF. An extensive computer system built in three tiers is planned to permit computing also in transparent and equivalent ways. In the following narrative, we list the projects of the six principal investigators and demonstrate the need for the new communal equipment. The laboratory to house the new machines in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology will be renovated: a wall is to be added for separating the core computers from the X-ray set, plumbing changed, electrical installation and a safety enclosure will be huilt. The projects, most supported by NIH grants to the P.I.s, are briefly described in narrative form, with references to published work where possible, and followed by a table defining projects and personnel. This lists the individual projects by title, the principal scientists working on the project and the status of the project. T he status provides a brief summary of the current needs for data collection.
