9811595 Webster Description: This award is for joint research in molecular biochemistry entitled US-India Cooperative Research: Engineering of Oxygen Affinity of a Unique Bacterial Hemoglobin from Vitreoscilla and Studies on Its Role and Implications on Cellular Physiology and Biotechnological Processes. The collaborators are PIs Webster and Stark of Illinois University and co-PI Dikshit of the Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh. They will perform experiments to characterize and obtain understanding on the biochemical function of the "hemoglobin" of the bacterium Vitreoscilla and how, when introduced into a hemoglobin-less bacterium by genetic engineering, it changes the biochemical pathways of its new host's metabolism. Scope: This research has great scientific and practical value, and will add to fundamental knowledge. The collaboration will exploit the complementary expertise of the two groups of investigators: biochemistry and physical chemistry of proteins on the US side and recombinant DNA technology on the Indian side, with obvious benefit to both. ***
