The University of Wyoming wants to strengthen its research programs in the health- related sciences, particularly in the area of protein structure/function relationships. The projects described in this proposal will provide training in the broad area of structural biology, defined here as the study of macromolecular structure and its relationship to biological function. The research proposed focuses on characterization of proteins whose cognate genes have been cloned and efficiently expressed. The proteins will be available in amounts sufficient for physical characterization. The junior and senior faculty members listed in this proposal have the collective expert is to perform physical and computational analyses of structure, develop chemical methods for purification and mechanistic investigations as well as to establish biological assays for activities critical to function. The basic information generated by these methods will facilitate even more sophisticated analyses of structure and function using physical, chemical, biological and computational tools which we have at our disposal. The specific research projects proposed by the junior faculty relate to human disease or biomedicine and include: (i) structure and function of a bovine uterine protein, (ii) collagen structure and its relationship to heart function, and (iii) enzyme- mediated catalysis and its regulation. Ongoing projects by the senior faculty members are: (i) characterization of a mosquito protein that specifically binds the toxin of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis, (ii) luteinizing hormone (LH)/human choriogonadotropin (hCG) and the LH/CG receptor, (iii) phospholipases A2, and (iv) spider silk proteins. This proposal is consistent with the University of Wyoming's long-range objective to enhance the biomedical research infrastructure and to achieve research competitiveness at the national level. Certainly, the administration and faculty involved are committed to this cause.
