Team Coordinator
Robert Matts
246 NRC
405-744-6200
Team Administrator
Gary Thompson
246 NRC
405-744-6189
Priority Areas for the Structure and Function of Macromolecules Team
1. Build extramural support for the maintenance and operation of OSU's X-ray Diffractometer. To build such support, we propose to use high-throughput strategies and cost-effective graduate research assistantships to staff a “Crystallization Center” and generate a battery of crystallization arrays, wherein each successful crystal can support an individual application to NSF/NIH/USDA. The availability of a low-barrier Center will be used to entice DASNR investigators to enter into the structural arena.
2. Build and foster a cohesive community whose make-up, organization, management plan, and preliminary success can attract extramural support for an extramurally funded “Structural Biology” Center. National trends have been toward building “multi-disciplinary teams” to investigate critical “biological-systems”. While individual research projects have their niche and should remain and be nurtured, there is clearly great potential in the area of “big-science”. The OSU land-grant mission through the auspices of the Agricultural Experiment Station and DANRS can be used to foster an environment to entice researchers from other teams to create collaborations design to utilize the expertise of the structural biologists on campus to address structure-function relationships of proteins critical to the regulation and functioning of diverse agricultural systems and to integrate these efforts into a fundable "Structural-Biology Center". However, this thrust will first requires a critical mass and essential infrastructure, and requires a change in the research culture that in the past have set priorities for the reward of the success of an individual’s own program. Thus, we propose to:
3. Acquire state of the art equipment to enhance the research capabilities relating to protein structure function on the OSU campus. To be competitive for extramural funding from national sources, state of the art equipment must be available to researchers. A priority for this research team will be to identify the equipment needs for research faculty, identify sources of funding that would allow acquisition of funds for the purchase of the equipment, and to acquire such equipment from monies raised. Items initially identified include: 1) an isothermal calorimeter to facilitate studies on protein-protein and protein drug interactions; 2) a tandem Mass-Spec/Mass-Spec and/ or an electrospray-Fourier-Transformed MS to expand the proteomics and protein-structure function capabilities of groups working on non-model organisms; and 3) a cryoprobe to upgrade the capabilities of the 600 MHz NMR for protein structure determination capabilities to facilitate faster data acquisition and to accommodate multiple users.
4. Acquire support for “Core” facilities that are critical to the research mission of DASNR and Oklahoma State University. Funds would be utilized to: offer competitive salaries for research faculty and technical personnel; restore, maintain and staff current “Core” facilities that are presently operating on campus; and for the purchase of maintenance contracts for high end instruments, such as the 600 MHz NMR, the X-ray diffractometer, the MS/MS when its is acquired, among others. In many instances, core facilities on campus are operating without maintenance contracts on high-end instrumentation. As such, the facilities may be just one catastrophic breakdown from shutting the facility down, either temporarily or for an extended period of time, until funds become available for repair. Other core facilities, critical to the research mission of DASNR and OSU have been temporarily closed, such as the HYCABS antibody production core facilities, for lack of staff. In some instances, DASNR and OSU have been unable to hire the most highly qualified candidate for a position because we were not able to offer a competitive salary. This priority is proposed to correct this situation.