Contact: Kay Fike Jones
A new NASA research contract is enabling a Mississippi State University chemist to continue work on a microgravity protein crystal growth project.
The two-year contract awards chemistry professor W. William Wilson more than $740,000 to continue his work on a major component in the NASA biotechnology program.
Wilson said the ultimate aim of the project is to build flight hardware that automatically controls the growth of protein crystals either on space shuttle flights or on the space station.
"Protein crystals grown in space have been shown to have higher internal order than those grown under the influence of gravity," he explained.
With these higher quality crystals, researchers can more accurately determine the molecules' three-dimensional structure. In turn, this aids in structure-based drug design by pharmaceutical companies, resulting in better treatments for certain diseases.
Wilson, along with scientists, technicians and students at MSU, are collaborating on the project with scientists and engineers at the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and with project scientists at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.