Funding from the Academic Research Infrastructure Program will enable the University of California at San Francisco to renovate existing research space dedicated to protein engineering studies. The primary focus of the Laboratory has been on understanding and applying structure-function relationships in proteins with a particular concentration on proteases and their natural inhibitors using genetic and biochemical methods. Protein engineering technologies are used to create wild-type and variant proteins in reagent quantities that are then analyzed both biochemically and biophysically to study substrate specificity, catalytic mechanism and structure. Located on the ninth floor of the UCSF Medical Sciences Building, the facilities provide a unique window on the principles and practice of protein engineering and its potential application to biotechnology. Research space, constructed 40 years ago that has been used for various significant scientific contributions in protein engineering since 1985, will be renovated. These facilities include four rooms: Molecular Biochemistry Laboratory, a Fermentation and Sterilization Room, a Cold Room, and a Computer Modeling Room. The lack of items such as no sinks, drains, vacuum and natural gas will be provided, a fume hood will be installed, and repairs to the electrical and refrigeration systems will be made. The Program is extremely productive and actively recruits high school, undergraduate, and minority students who aspire to become scientists interested in interdisciplinary research. Students experience many aspects of biotechnology from computer modeling to hands-on protein engineering to structure determination. Not only will this project enhance collaborations, but it will promote the development of new macromolecular tools needed to conduct state- of-the-art biotechnology research.
