Single Crystal Neutron Diffraction Studies of DNA Molecules
{'Code': '08070400', 'Directorate': {'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'LongName': 'Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Arthur Kowalsky'}
DNA molecules play a central role in the biological processes                   of the living cell.  During the life cycle of the cell, they                    undergo a change in their conformational states going from                      the highly organized and condensed form in chromosomes to a                     more open state that presumably exists when the DNA is                          biologically active, as during replication, transcription,                      genetic recombination or in DNA repair.  In order to understand                 how the different steps of these biological reactions are                       carried out and regulated, it is necessary to have a clear                      picture of the different conformational states that DNA                         molecules are capable of adopting.                                                                                                                              Dr. Wang will carry out high resolution single crystal                          neutron diffraction studies on crystals of                                      deoxyoligonucleotide molecules as well as their complexes                       with antitumor drugs in order to understand the structure and                   dynamics of DNA molecules.  From these studies, the solvent                     organization around the DNA molecules will be carefully                         defined and analyzed.                                                                                                                                           The information obtained from neutron diffraction studies                       will be compared with that from X-ray studies and correlated                    with the solution biophysical properties of DNA that have been                  studied extensively by other spectroscopic techniques such as                   nuclear magnetic resonance and laser Raman spectroscopy.
{'FirstName': 'Andrew', 'LastName': 'Wang', 'EmailAddress': None, 'StartDate': '09/01/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology', 'CityName': 'Cambridge', 'ZipCode': '021394301', 'PhoneNumber': '6172531000', 'StreetAddress': '77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Massachusetts', 'StateCode': 'MA'}
{'Code': '1144', 'Text': 'Molecular Biophysics'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1986&All=true', 'xml': '8612268.xml'}