International Research Fellowship Program: Kinetics of E. Coli RNA Polymerase-Promoter Interactions

Sclavi, Bianca, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

0107358 Sclavi The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will provide twelve months of support to Dr. Bianca Sclavi to work with Dr. Malcolm Buckle at Institut Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, France on the kinetics of E-. coli RNA polymerase-promoter interactions. This project is a continuation of work with Dr. Buckle on the study of the structural kinetics of bacterial transcription in order to better understand how this process is regulated by different cellular factors such as activator or repressor proteins. They are using a combination of three different techniques - DNAase footprinting, cross linking and x-ray footprinting) that give a unique understanding of the different conformational changes taking place during the recognition of a promoter by the E.coli RNA polymerase. Dr. Buckle is the Head of the Laboratory of Enzymology and Structural Kinetics. ***