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Center for Protein Structure and Function

The Center for Protein Structure and Function was established in 2000 with a $9.6 million COBRE grant from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Research Resources. Support for the Center was continued in 2005 with $10.2 million grant fro NIH NCRR, as well as numerous other grants to faculty in the Center.   

Proteins do nearly all the work in the cells of our bodies, ranging from brain function and nerve transmission to metabolic energy production and muscular contraction. Moreover, most diseases are associated with defects in protein function. Future advances in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of human disease will depend upon better understanding of the structures, functions and interactions of the thousands of proteins that are encoded within the genomes of humans, and human pathogens. Such understanding will emerge from detailed investigations of the molecular structure and function of proteins that play an important role in human disease. The members of the University of Arkansas COBRE Center for Protein Structure and Function seek to make significant contributions to this fundamental understanding through multidisciplinary research projects using state-of-the-art techniques and instrumentation.

The goals of the COBRE Center are to strengthen collaboration between investigators and allow them to develop promising new approaches to biomedical research in protein structure and function. During the initial seven years of the Center, 12 outstanding new faculty have been hired, and state-of-the-art core facilities in NMR spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry, large-scale protein production, and high-throughput synthesis have been established

The Center supports five multidisciplinary research projects involving over 20 faculty members and 50 graduate students in three different departments.

Frank Millett, Director of CPSF,
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Email: millett@uark.edu
Phone: 479-575-4999