( re during and after the process of att...)Natural antibiotics yield secrets to atom-level imaging technique

Solid-state NMR spectroscopy is an ideal tool for answering such questions because it provides atom-level details of the molecule's structure in the complex and challenging cell membrane environment, Ramamoorthy said. "Just as an MRI produces a detailed image of our internal organs, solid-state NMR spectroscopy is used to construct a detailed image of a peptide or protein and to reveal how it sits in the cell membrane," providing clues for modifications that might make synthetic AMPs even more effective in overcoming ever-increasing bacterial resistance. For instance, rearranging parts of the molecule might make it fit into the membrane better, resulting in greater effectiveness with smaller amounts of AMP.

"Our overall mission is to use the kind of basic physical data we obtain from solid-state NMR spectroscopy to help interpret biological functions," Ramamoorthy said. The work is highly interdisciplinary, involving not only Ramamoorthy's lab and several other groups in the Chemistry Department, but also researchers from the College of Engineering, the School of Dentistry, the Medical School and the Biophysics Research Division, as well as collaborators in Canada, Japan, India and the U.S. pharmaceutical companies Genaera Corporation and Eli Lilly and Company. Ramamoorthy was awarded support from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, through an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award.

A leader in this area of research, he has organized two major international symposia on the field at the University of Michigan, edited a special issue in the journal BBA-Biomembranes, published a number of papers in leading journals, and brought out a book on NMR Spectroscopy of Biological Solids. Ramamoorthy says that this area of research will grow considerably at U-M from implementing plans to set up a high magnetic field solid-state NM
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Source:University of Michigan