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Richland, Wash., Lab Gets $2.5 Million for Protein Molecule Project

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 28--Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been awarded more than $2.5 million to study the structure of protein molecules that could lead to the development of new drugs.

The Richland-based laboratory is one of 10 centers chosen this month by the National Institutes of Health to participate in the five-year research project known as The Protein Structure Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to put 5,000 protein structures into a public database.

PNNL scientists Michael Kennedy, Theresa Ramelot and John Cort are using PNNL's nuclear magnetic resonance equipment to analyze protein samples for the project.

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies a magnetic nucleus by aligning it with an external magnetic field. PNNL is the only Department of Energy facility with nuclear magnetic resonance equipment, Kennedy said.

This equipment includes a 16-ton superconducting magnet known as a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. It has an operating frequency of 900 megahertz. The laboratory also uses spectrometers with 600, 750 and 800 megahertz for the project.

The samples are sent weekly or biweekly from Rutgers University via FedEx.

In the next five years, the trio of scientists hope to identify 60 protein structures from the samples, Kennedy said.

"Our emphasis is trying to understand human proteins," Kennedy said.

Although data collection needed to identify protein structures has taken four to six weeks in the past, researchers are now using new experiments to produce results in as little as a week.

PNNL also will use X-ray technology called X-ray crystallography to look at protein samples and compare what is found through the nuclear magnetic resonance equipment.

In the end, the protein structures identified could give researchers clues about the development of new drugs, Kennedy said.

By identifying the protein structures, researchers can determine how to prioritize studying them for human medicine, Gaetano Montelione, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry at New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers, told The Associated Press this month.

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Source: Tri-City Herald

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