The setting up of the Structural Biology Section began with acquiring all of the necessary equipment for each of three areas of the section; X-ray diffraction, computer support and protein chemistry. The following describes the major equipment that has been acquired in the fiscal year of 94. X-ray diffraction unit consists of two Rigaku RU200 rotating anode X-ray generators as X-ray sources, two RAXIS-II imaging plate systems as 3-D diffraction data collection devices and an Enraf-Nonius precession camera for 2-D diffraction data collection. The computing support has four DEC Alpha 3000/800 series of workstations for speed computation, five Silicon Graphics Indigo 2-extreme workstations for computation and graphics interface, one Evans and Sutherland workstation as graphics interface two PC-486 computers and one MAC for simple graphics and word processing. The protein chemistry section has a 10L fermentor, a HPLC system and a FPLC system. The second part of the process of structural biology establishment is to recruit individual researchers. Up to date, a Senior Research Fellow, Linda Hannick, has been recruited and a number of postdoctoral fellows are in the process to be recruited to the section. The third component is to initiate research projects. Projects currently in progress are i) crystallization and structure determination of TGF- beta Receptor, TGF-beta1 LAP and their Complexes; ii) crystallographic studies of cytokines, like CTGF (a connective tissue growth factor) and IL-13; iii) expression, purification and crystallization of immune related receptors, including type 1 interferon receptor and TCR; iv) structure determination of a bioluminescent protein aequorin.
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