9707270 LiWang This is a Research Planning Grant for Women Scientists and Engineers. Dr. LiWang will study the interactions involved in dimer formation of representative members of the chemokine family of proteins, using a combination of biochemical methods and NMR spectroscopy. This family has unique structural properties that allow a detailed assessment of important amino acid interactions in the formation of quaternary structure. Chemokines have been divided into two subfamilies, characterized by the ability to form different dimer structures despite having similar monomeric subunits. A structural investigation of a chemokine dimer will therefore lead to an understanding of the interactions that form the structure of these proteins themselves, and shed light on the protein-protein interactions that are responsible for dimer formation and stabilization in general. ***
