Welcome
Welcome to the Eppley Structural Biology Facility. The Eppley Structural Biology facility was initiated in 2004 through funding from the Nebraska Reseach Initiative and Tobacco Settlement dollars. Since its inception in 2004, the Eppley Structural Biology Facility has trained research technicians, and established protein expression, purification and crystallization laboratories accessible to all the Eppley Cancer Center members.
Purpose
The overall purpose of the Eppley Structural Biology Facility is to provide Eppley Cancer Center members with access to state of the art structural biology instrumentation for the purpose of applying structural techniques to the analysis of important cancer-related biological macromolecules, providing basic knowledge of disease mechanism, driving research and directing the synthesis of novel therapeutics.
Atomic images of the arrangement of amino acid side chains in three dimensions gives the details needed to visualize the active sites of enzymes, see the DNA binding sites of transcription factors and view the protein-protein interactions of signaling molecules. Function can be understood through determination of atomic structures. Modification of the function of macromolecules is a key to developing specific therapies without side effects.
Facilities
The Structural Biology Facility is divided into four main laboratory components:
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Protein Expression and Purification (PrEP) Lab - This lab is dedicated to the high yield production, purification and labeling of protein.
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Crystal Screening and Growth (CSG) Lab - This lab uses the Formulatrix industry-standard automated crystallization platform to set up, image and electronically evaluate experiments.
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X-ray Crystallography Lab - This lab has a Rigaku protein crystallography instrument composed of an FRE rotating anode generator and dual R-Axis IV++ detectors configured for the collection of high resolution X-ray diffraction data.
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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Lab - This lab has three NMR spectrometers (400 Mhz, 500 Mhz and 600 Mhz) allowing the lab to perform a wide variety of NMR data collection including protein structural data up to 30 kDa.
Access
Access to the Eppley Structural Biology Facility is arranged through Dr. Borgstahl. Contact her through the web here or by phone at 9-8578.
Funding
The Structural Biology Facility is supported in part by the following...
Nebraska EPSCoR IDeA Program
National Institutes of Health
National Science Foundation
