The MT-COBRE Biophysics Core is a new core in this 5-year renewal grant.  The overall goal of the Biophysics Core is to provide access for COBRE investigators to sophisticated biophysical approaches.  Dr. Chaires (a former member of the MT-COBRE External Advisory Board) was recruited to the Brown Cancer Center because of his expertise in the biophysical aspects of intermolecular interactions.  This valuable resource will provide a unique resource for MT-COBRE scientists and mentors.  We anticipate that almost all of the projects will take advantage of this core during the next five years.  The specific aims of the Biophysics Core Facility are to:

1. provide state-of-the-art biophysical instrumentation and expertise to COBRE members and to scientists at the Brown Cancer Center and the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center;
2. provide training in biophysical methods and data analysis;
3. develop high-throughput biophysical methods for use in drug discovery;
4. integrate the biophysical core with computational and structural biology cores at the Brown Cancer Center to enhance drug discovery efforts.

These aims will be met by maintaining state-of-the-art calorimetric, spectroscopic, and analytical ultracentrifugation instrumentation, and by the development of systematic training procedures for both individuals and groups.  New instrumentation and methodologies will be developed, in part, in collaboration with industrial partners.  Although the Biophysics Core Facility is relatively new (less than two years), it already has had a major impact on research in the MT-COBRE.