Eppley Structural Biology Facility
A shared resource supported by the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
Purpose
The overall purpose of the Structural Biology Facility is to provide 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.
Services
The Structural Biology Facility has four main services:
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Protein Expression and Purification (PrEP) – The PrEP service is dedicated to the high yield production, purification and labeling of protein which is used by investigators for a wide range of purposes.
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Crystal Screening and Growth (CSG) – The CSG service uses the Formulatrix Rockmaker LIMS and associated robotic instrumentation to guide the crystallization of proteins of interest.
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X-ray – The X-ray service has single crystal diffractometer for solving high resolution X-ray crystal structures. The system consists of an FRE+ rotating copper anode generator, high resolution optics, quarter-chi goniometer, and an R-Axis IV++ detector. The service also has a Rigaku BioSAXS-1000 to collect Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) data on solutions.
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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) – The NMR service operates twp spectrometers (400 and 600 Mhz) for the verification of organic synthesis of small molecule inhibitors.
Access
Access to the Structural Biology Facility is arranged through Dr. Borgstahl. Contact her by phone at (402) 559-8578.
Access to the NMR Lab is arranged through Ed Ezell. Contact him by phone at (402) 559-4174.
Funding
The Structural Biology Facility is supported in part by the following…
Nebraska Research Initiative
Nebraska EPSCoR IDeA Program
National Institutes of Health
National Science Foundation