Small SAL2 crystals that can be optimised to grow larger to gain high resolution data
Supervisor: Dr. Fellner (Biochemistry)
The Fph projects are in collaboration with the following international laboratories, interactions and visits to these laboratories are options for these projects:
Bogyo Lab – Stanford University – USA
Lentz Lab – University of Tromsø – Norway
Summary: This project is ideal if you want work on a project where you will be the first in the world to determine the structure of a protein. FphD, FphJ and SAL1 have successfully been purified in the past, showing a great potential for protein crystallisation but their structures have not been determined yet. SAL2 has been crystallised by us to 2.7 Å with a lot of optimisation potential to increase the resolution for ligand binding studies. This is where you come in – you will learn how to create protein crystals and determine the structure of the protein that forms it. This project also includes measurements at the Melbourne Australian synchrotron (in person or remotely depending on your preference). In addition, you will learn to use several other biochemical techniques to characterise the structure and function of your purified proteins. A student project will focus on 1-3 Fphs depending on degree level.
