A network of Silicon Graphics workstations and the Alabama Supercomputer Network meet the labs computational needs. A collaboration with faculty at the University of South Alabama Medical School, the project helped reveal the catalytic mechanism. This provides a structural basis for designing drugs targeting this enzyme. Determining the structures of a series of natural product molecules from tropical rain forest extracts provided by the UAH Natural Products Group. That group screens extracts for biological activity and isolates active compounds.
Crystallography provides an accurate way to identify potentially therapeutic compounds.
Crystals of the protein were grown in microgravity to determine whether microgravity influences crystal growth, and to observe anomalies that might indicate a gravity effect. Bigger and more perfect crystals were grown under reduced gravity conditions than can presently be grown on Earth. The improved crystals were used to develop high-resolution crystallographic structure.