This proposal requests funds to acquire equipment necessary to perform high sensitivity protein composition and sequence analyses. Seventeen NIH supported investigators, located at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Mount Sinai Medical Center, or the Blood Center of Southeastern Wisconsin are currently involved in protein oriented research that would be expedited by access to a local protein chemistry facility. At present, no such facilities exist in southeastern Wisconsin. However, acquisition of the requested Waters Pico Tag amino acid analyzer and Applied Biosystems gas phase sequencer, together with the Medical Collage of Wisconsin's guarantee of support for operating and maintenance expenses, will result in a regional resource that will meet the needs of all of the participating investigators. Maximum utilization of the requested equipment will be arranged by an advisory committee consisting of the PI and several major users who have experience in various aspects of protein chemistry. The protein chemistry equipment will eventually be housed in new laboratory space located in a molecular biology core facility. This clustering of equipment will result in a center that can handle structural analyses of both proteins and nucleic acid and will assure long term access to the requested instrumentation.
