Ann Stapleton University of North Carolina - Wilmington
This is a planning visit that provides support for the PI and one of her undergraduate students to travel to Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. The US principal investigator is Ann Stapleton from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The foreign collaborator is Gerlad Richter, an expert in photochemistry and biochemistry. The primary purpose of this visit is to establish a long-term collaborative partnership between the PI and Professor Richter.
The focus of their research is on ultraviolet-B (UV-B) photoreceptors. No UV-B photoreceptor has been identified despite intensive effort by scientists world-wide. Mutant characterization of a candidate protein from Arabidopsis thaliana has provided intriguing mechanistic hypotheses for further biochemical analysis. Biochemical characterization of the first UV-B photoreceptor is key to understanding ozone depletion effects, such as prediction of the potential extent of trophic level alterations with increased UV-B. Together, the researchers will order a synthetic gene with optimized codon usage for E. coli expression.
