This proposal requests funds to permit Dr. Gene F. Morris, Department of Chemistry, Western Carolina University (WCU), and Dr. Themba Tyobeka, Department of Chemistry, University of Swaziland (UNISWA), to pursue, for a period of 24 months, a program of cooperative research on synthetic routes for the preparation of thiophospholipids. Phospholipids are a major class of compounds present in the cell membranes of most organisms. Ultimately the goals of the synthetic schemes to be undertaken by these collaborators are (1) the production of 1- and 2-thiophospholipids, compounds in which sulfur has replaced oxygen on the first or second carbon atoms of the glycerol chain and (2) to study the role of phospholipids in membranes by substituting thiophospholipids which have similar properties and, unlike phospholipids, may be followed by continuous spectrophotometric analysis. In addition to the chemical research to be undertaken, each collaborator will visit the other's university and provide consultation and lectures designed to strengthen each institution's program in chemistry. This project provides support for a long-standing relationship between WCU and UNISWA which now is in its eighth year. During that period, each university has assisted faculty of the other in research activities. The present project will allow the collaborators to complete the synthesis of thiophospholipids which was started when Dr. Tyobeka was a visiting faculty associate at WCU in 1988. This project is relevant to the objectives of the Science in Developing Countries Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. scientists and engineers and their counterparts in developing countries through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit.
