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Structural Dissection of Mammalian Circadian Rhythm
Team: Dr. Chuan Xiao & Scott Rush
Circadian rhythm is an intrinsic and roughly-24-hour biological clock embedded within most living organisms. This biological clock is critical for organisms to tailor their metabolism and behavior to the hours of the day for energy efficiency. In mammals, circadian rhythm coordinates sleep-wake cycles, blood pressure, body temperature and liver metabolism in a daily cycle. Disruption of the clock will lead to sleep loss and many other health problems. Core components in the circadian regulation have been identified for more than two decades. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms of exactly how central clock components function as well as their regulation are still unclear due to the lack of structural information.
The ultimate goal of the proposed project is to use structural tools such as X-ray crystallography to dissect the molecular mechanisms among the core components of mammalian circadian rhythm. The selected STEM-RTI student for this project will team with graduate students and other undergraduate students to clone, express and purify core components in the mammalian circadian system for structural studies. The participating student will learn and perform polymerase chain reaction (PCR), DNA and protein electrophoresis, DNA ligation and transformation, protein expression and purification. The STEM-RTI student will integrate his/her final results into a lecture that will be presented in the course of Biochemistry II (CHEM 3332). Biochemistry II is about metabolism and bioenergetics that is closely related to circadian rhythm. The STEM-RTI student’s presentation will raise the interests of other students to study metabolism as well as to recruit more undergraduate students to do research, which will influence their choice of science as a career.
