Objective
This research and development programme will construct new and also improve existing instrumentation and techniques in optical spectroscopy to examine biomolecular structure, dynamics and interactions at the molecular and cellular levels. The techniques being employed for the study at the molecular level will include: resonance, time-resolved resonance, near infra-red Fourier-transform, UV resonance and surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy; time-resolved and conventional spectrofluorimetry, and quantum chemical calculations. The first UV Raman microscope and combined laser 3D-scanning confocal Raman/SERS/Fluorescence microprobe both with sub-micron spatial resolution will be constructed and employed for studies of biomolecular structure and interactions within single organelles within living cells. The technique of point-by-point superposition of conventional and corresponding spectral images will be used for the high-resolution applications.
The instrumentation and techniques will ultimately be used to examine the molecular mechanisms of manifold biomolecular functions, including physiological redox processes, proton, ion, electron and cell transport, cell-cell recognition, immunological responses and light-dependent processes. Genetically engineered mutants and chemically modified derivatives of cytochromes, phytochrome, tubulin, etc. will be available and will enable light to be shed on the role of individual amino acids in the function of supramolecular complexes. The research based on complementary spectroscopic and corresponding chemical and biochemical techniques is ideal for comparable studies of enzyme substrate and drug/target interactions at the molecular and cellular levels. The approach will be used to examine both the intracellular structural organisation of high-molecular-weight species (enzymes, membrane proteins, DNA, etc.), and small organic molecules (particularly antitumor compounds) as well as to study molecular mechanisms for their interactions with the targets within the living sensitive and resistant cancer cells.
New biologically active compounds, including novel potent antitumor-active and tumour-preventing agents (inhibitors of DNA-topoisomerases) and inhibitors of human immunodeficiency virus integrase, as well as supra-molecular photochromic complexes based on the polyfunctional receptors containing crown-ethers groups, which may have application at the cellular level in regulating trans-membrane movements, will be studied.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
Data not availableCoordinator
51096 Reims
France