$8 Million NIH Grant Awarded to FSU
October 4, 2001
Contact:
Tim Cross/ Janet Patten
(850) 644-0917 / 644-9651
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A large team of researchers from across the country led by Florida State University chemist and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory researcher, Timothy A. Cross has been awarded one of the largest grants that FSU has received from the National Institutes of Health, nearly $8.1M over the next five years.
The project aims to develop technology for characterizing protein structures that exist in biological membranes. These proteins represent the communication between the outside and inside of all cells-even between the inside and outside of cellular compartments such as the cell nucleus. Because membrane proteins carry out such crucial functions, it is not surprising that drugs, which interfere with the activities of these proteins, can have profound physiological effects. It is anticipated that more than 90 percent of new drugs in the field of neuroscience alone will be targeted toward membrane proteins.
This project is also significant because of the importance of its biological focus: It targets the membrane proteins of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the agent responsible for tuberculosis. These membrane proteins represent many potential drug targets in this bacillus, which is ranked as the #1 cause of infectious disease mortality in the world. In fact, a third of the world’s population is infected with TB. Drug resistance is, today, a paramount concern in the treatment of tuberculosis-new drugs are needed and this project will facilitate the achievement of that goal.
For the first time, researchers with expertise in a wide range of technologies are collaborating to attack this very difficult scientific challenge. Researchers from eight institutions in six states from California to Pennsylvania and Indiana to Texas are involved. The laboratories of 13 investigators will be tied together by internet-based tools in a single virtual laboratory where novel ideas and approaches to the scientific challenges can be fostered. Membrane proteins exist in a greasy membrane environment that makes it very difficult prepare the samples for structural characterization. However, the combined expertise of this group provides the best hope to gain this vitally important information for medical science.
This large project is a team effort including: Prof. Michael S. Chapman, Florida State University, Department of Chemistry; Prof. Wah Chiu, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas; Prof. Bing K. Jap, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California; Prof. Patrick J. Loll, Medical College of Pennsylvania - Hahnemann University, Pennsylvania; Prof. Alan G. Marshall, Florida State University, Department of Chemistry and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory; Prof. Robert K. Nakamoto, University of Virginia; Prof. Stanley J. Opella, University of California at San Diego; Prof. Charles R. Sanders, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio; Prof. Frank D. Sönnichsen, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio; Prof. Cynthia V. Stauffacher, Purdue University, Indiana; Prof. Kenneth A. Taylor, Florida State University, Department of Biological Sciences; and Prof. Michael C. Wiener, University of Virginia.
