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$1.1 Million Grant Establishes UT as Crystallography Powerhouse |
| By
Rebecca Maggard |
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Aug 12, 2003 |
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| From left, Dr. Max Funk, Dr. Timothy Mueser and Dr. Ronald Viola posed for a photo by the X-ray diffractometer in the crystallography lab. With the grant money, a more powerful diffractometer will be purchased. |
A $1.18 million grant from the Ohio Board of Regents Hayes Investment Fund, will help solidify the chemistry department’s position as a leader in the field of crystallography research.
Dr. Ronald Viola, professor of chemistry, along with Dr. Max Funk, Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, and Dr. Timothy Mueser, assistant professor of chemistry, were awarded the grant last month to establish a state-of-the-art macromolecular crystallography consortium. The consortium will provide the resources and technology that will enable researchers to create a very detailed picture of the structure of proteins, which are the fundamental components of all living cells.
According to Viola, the new equipment, along with resources purchased with a 1995 Hayes grant, securely establishes the chemistry department’s place as a Midwest leader in crystallography research. “This grant is going to give us a tremendous edge as a center of excellence in the Midwest,” Viola said. “The state-of-the-art equipment and resources we will now have will attract crystallographers from all over.”
Viola and his team will purchase a $200,000 robotic machine that will automate the process of crystallizing proteins. According to Viola, they currently have to do the time-consuming process by hand. Proteins have to be isolated and crystallized before they can be mapped and studied.
A second machine, a highly powerful X-ray diffractometer valued at more than $800,000, will be added to the department’s X-ray crystallography lab. This machine will shoot X-rays through the crystallized proteins and produce a 3-D image of the protein. “If we can solve the structure of proteins then we can figure out how to design molecules that are able to block or improve their function to help treat medical conditions,” Viola explained.
The shear number of different biological proteins makes it nearly impossible to study all of them, so the researchers are focusing on individual proteins. Mueser and his graduate students are studying protein enzymes that repair DNA. Funk’s specialties are proteins that help fatty acids metabolize, which have a major role in treating heart disease. Viola’s research is centered on finding new drug targets to combat microorganisms that have become resistant to current drug therapies. Within the last year, he also began mapping the protein that is responsible for Canavan disease, which causes spongy degeneration of the brain and almost certain death.
In addition to the team of UT researchers, several crystallographers from Ohio State University, Cleveland State University, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic are involved with the new consortium.
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