This award supports the purchase of a four-channel peptide synthesizer, as well as the purchase of a high pressure liquid chromatography system and a lyophilizer, both to be used in conjunction with the synthesizer. The instruments will be housed in a new facility to be established in the chemistry department where they are expected to serve in the research and training activities of over a dozen faculty from the departments of chemistry, biophysics and biology on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. The equipment will be used for a wide variety of biochemical, biophysical and bioorganic investigations that employ synthetic peptides. Examples of expected use include incorporation of different non-standard amino acids into an array of functional proteins, and synthesis of combinatorial peptide libraries. The research interests of the faculty include studies of the enzymology of multi-subunit enzymes, of protein interactions within membrane bilayers, and of ribosomal protein-RNA interactions, and the selection of catalytically-active metallopeptides. The expected users will include undergraduate and graduate and postdoctoral students. The graduate and postdoctoral trainees involved in research requiring synthetic peptides will receive education and training in peptide chemistry, solid-phase chemistry, and in instrument maintenance. The undergraduate researchers will be encouraged to use the new instrumentation as part of their broader lab projects. In addition to their records of involvement in research training, all of the investigators have a history of participation in outreach activities to local area public schools and to programs that target women and/or underrepresented minorities.
