This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. With the completion of the Human Genome Project and the emerging proteomics era, the biotechnology and biology community is beginning the daunting task of understanding the functions of a large number of interacting proteins. We will be concerned with the collective interactions between different proteins that lead to the formation of structures, spanning lengths from the nanometer to the micrometer scale, in filamentous proteins, which constitute the cell cytoskeleton. The biomolecular assemblies will be characterized in very dilute mixtures in x-ray capillaries to mimic in vivo conditions, and in small-scale micro-arrays, fabricated using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) methods, containing highly aligned and interacting proteins. These micro-arrays will be scanned and protein-protein structures and interactions will be probed with high precision by the high intensity synchrotron x-ray source. The micro-channel methods that we propose to use should lead to an important new structural probe of protein-protein interactions.
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