This award supports one trip per year, over a two year period, to Australia by Dr. Peeples of the Rush-Presbyterian - St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago to conduct collaborative research with Dr. Jeffrey Gorman, Head for Protein Chemistry at the Biomolecular Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria. Drs. Peeples and Gorman share an interest in understanding the structure and function of the paramyxovirus fusion protein. This glycoprotein, in its active, cleaved form, enables the membrane in which it resides to fuse with an opposing membrane. The structural elements of this protein required for its proper folding, disulfide bond formation, oligomerization, transport and cleavage are not known. Recent genetic, immunologic and peptide chemistry information generated in the laboratories of these investigators has led to new insights. The investigators will work in each other's laboratories for one month each year over the duration of the award. In this way, they will be able to share their diverse expertise, techniques and reagents. Both investigators are using the Newcastle disease virus F protein as a model and each has developed unique antibody probes which will facilitate their studies. Their first target will be to identify the disulfide bond which links the F1 and F2 peptides generated by cleavage in the trans Golgi and to determine its role in folding, transport and cleavage.
