created: 19th October 2001, last updated: 19th October 2001,© 2001 ABRF
FORMATION OF A NEW ABRF RESEARCH GROUP - THE MOLECULAR INTERACTIONS RESEARCH GROUP
As the vision of the ABRF continues to expand, we will be adding new research groups to stay abreast of emerging technologies. The current focus of the research groups is largely on the synthesis, purification and determination of the mass and covalent structure of biomolecules. An emerging frontier is the determination of molecular function. This latter aspect comes largely from a knowledge of the non-covalent interactions that these molecules experience. Three technologies well suited for these studies are isothermal titration calorimetry, surface plasmon resonance and analytical ultracentrifugation. These tools allow us to define protein-protein, protein-DNA and protein-small molecule interactions, to high resolution. Hence, a Molecular Interactions Research Group has been established to embrace these techniques .
The mission of this Research Group is (1) to show how solution biophysical tools (ITC, SPR, and AUC) are used to quantitatively characterize interactions of macromolecules with each other and with small molecules, (2) to show how these tools work in a resource facility environment, (3) to educate the ABRF members in the methodologies of the three core technologies, (4) to provide test systems to be used to compare the capabilities of individual laboratories with each other, either within the three disciplines or among the disciplines, (5) to compile the results of the analyses of these systems and publish the results in the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques or other appropriate publications, and (6) to meet regularly to organize and run workshops or other activities at the annual ABRF meetings to accomplish this mission.
A core of the newly organized group met at ABRF'99 in Durham to begin toflesh out a plan for the operation of the group. Six members were chosen to form the first Molecular Interactions Research Group. They are Preston Hensley (Chairperson, Pfizer Inc), Ed Eisenstein (Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology and National Institute of Standards and Technology), David Myszka (University of Utah), Steven Swanson (Amgen, Inc.), Mike Doyle (Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute) and Fred Schwarz (National Institute of Standards and Technology).
This first meeting was used to define the mission of the group and to discuss ways to identify potential participants from the three fields. The focus of the next few months activities will be to plan for a scientific session at the next ABRF meeting and to define a set of standards for initial studies of molecular interactions.
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