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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 27, 1985)
Why Settle For Less? 01’ Lou Pays More For Used Books. LOUPOT’S BOOKSTORE FREE PARKING IN REAR FOR CUSTOMERS 500 Longnecks Cue ‘n’ Brew Aggie Bowl Bound Party Before Bonfire — Wed. Nov. 27th noon to mid night— all longnecks 500 and pitchers just $1.50 with this ad & TAMU I.D.H Special also good during t.u. DESTRUCTION -watch the game with the Cue ‘n’ Brew Crowd! Located at Woodstone Center on Harvey Road behind Archie’s 390 burgers College Station 696-0616 Ribbon Sweaters of metallic fabric PERFECT FOR THAT SPECIAL LADY each an original J small • medium • large $42 blues/reds • green/gold • black/silver ^ ! J il I ' UIT Page 4rThe Battalion/Wednesday, November 27,1985 State and Local Prof: Sti 1 By LAU A&M prof experimenting with light producing bacterid By BILL HUGHES Reporter The room is dark, except for a liter of fluid glowing an eerie aqua in a flask sitting atop a magnetic stirring motor. The fluid contains biolumines- cent bacteria known as photobac terium phosphorium, the marine microorganisms responsible for the light show. “If we can learn what the pa rameters are on the surface of the enzyme, we have the beginnings of an ability to design a reactor with high efficiency for home lighting,” says Dr. Tom Baldwin, associate professor of biochemistry and bi ophysics at Texas A&M. After 14 years of working with these light-emitting creatures, Baldwin says he is still fascinated by them. “I’m far from becoming bored with it,” he says of his work in bac terial bioluminescence. Baldwin’s interest in lumines cent bacteria began in 1971 when he was a graduate student working in protein chemistry at the Univer sity of Texas. He attended a seminar on bacte rial bioluminescence given by visit ing professor Woody Hastings, got hooked on the subject and began reading about it at the library, he says. “I decided there was a lot of fer tile ground there for further re search,” Baldwin says. When he began working, little was being done in basic or applied research with bioluminescent bac teria. Since then, researchers have made new discoveries about the chemical structure of the enzymes, known as luciferases, which cat alyze the light-emitting reaction. The reaction is highly efficient, with most of the energy going to light production and little energy being w'asted as heat. The result is cold light, a light bright enough to read by in a dark 3 Davs Onlv - Sale Ends Nov. 30th SPECIAL PRESEASON SALE ON.. .TAILORED SUITS * YEAR AROUND FABRICS * WIDE RANGES OF COLORS AND * ALL SIZES IN STOCK 35 TO 56 REG, LGS., X-LGS., SHORTS AND PORTLYS. $ 69.to $ 139 BIGS & TALES ENTIRE STOCK SIZES— (50 to 56) FROM- 89. (SMALL ALTERATIONS CHG. ON SALE ITEMS) i VISA nriJft? XT AY TT17 I>T A X V/Al-iUJcLt iJLjAK-sEj room, but not hot to the touch the way an ordinary tungsten bulb would be. “As a result of the protein chemistry that we’ve done with the bacterial luciferase, we know a lot about the structure of the enzy me,” he says. "We know what we can do to it and what we can’t do to it.” Baldwin primarily is interested in how the enzyme folds to give an active 3-D structure. “All proteins, when they’re syn thesized in the cell, are synthesized starting from one end . . . it’s like a chain that’s being made one link at a time,” he says. “When the pro tein is fully synthesized . . . it’s properly folded and ready to go to work.” Doing the same thing in a test tube isn’t quite as efficient. The subunits of the protein can be sep arated chemically, but when they’re recombinea it takes about three days to get full activity. “There must be something about how folding occurs in a cell that is very different from the way it occurs in a test tube,” Baldwin says. “My feeling is that it must have something to do with the or der with which the subunits are available to fold.” Monitoring the results of the re action within the cell is made eas ier because the product of the en zyme-catalyzed reaction leaves the cell as light. Checking for enzyme activity is as easy as looking for light emission from a colony of cells. “The hope is . . . that since the assay is so sensitive with respect to the luciferase system, we might be able to get an experimental handle on the process of protein folding inside the cell,” he says. Baldwin says he believes that whoever finds the key to protein folding surely will be awarded the Nobel Prize. “Right now, it’s pie in the sky, but I think we might be able to get a handle on it,” Baldwin says. ‘ A tropical 1 ;ing offered ii for students lional agricul work in the tr )ton Storey, pr ‘science. | Storey, the Seatt graa ends Texas A& certain to bui since this is tl | be imposed Texas’ mand ! Although I effect since riod was ext The law reqi [of seat belts front seal pa mobiles, van Ipacitv oflpcs Photo by Bill Hogk Dr. Tom Baldwin examines the enzymes known as “luciferases 1 He says protein folding le- search is creative, but chancy. Baldwin says he’s trying to get enough information on the proc ess to write a grant proposal. “At this moment, the research isn’t even sufficiently well-formu lated enough to convince a grant ing agency to give me the money to do the work," he says. “You have to show you know how to do the things you want to accom plish.” A new microprocessor-con trolled 2. r >()-liter fermentation unit has helped Baldwin speed up the researcn process because the unit lets him grow the large quantities of bacteria needed lor some of his experiments. In one day, the 250-liter n process the sartie amounti bac leria that it used to take Ifldt' to do with a ll)-liier unit. Baldwin's research is ba« meaning it s research designed expand the boundaries of to edge without any specificapp|i lions in mind. Baldwin says that using«' let uses .is molec ular tagsin jw ol tadioactivc isotopes issaleny mote efficient because the k-f fetuses don't present the haflT ol radioactive material, arettlffl expensive to manufacture,addujl easiei and < heaper to assayMfc: isotopes. Regents to discuss emergency loan eligibility changes By MARYBETH ROHSNER Stull Writer A rules revision of Texas A&M’s emergency tuition and fees loan pro gram is one of the items on the Board of Regents’ agenda for to day’s meeting at 3 p.m. The Regents will discuss the re cent change in the eligibility require ment for the emergency loan pro gram to allow students on conduct probation to be eligible for the fed erally sponsored loans. Currently students on conduct probation are not considered eligible for the program, but the U.S. De partment of Education has ruled that such students should be eligible. The Regents also will vote on: • Choice of a contractor for the A. P. Beutel Health Center addition. • Choice of a contractor for the Veterinary Medicine Complex reno vation. • Acceptance of nearly $10 mil lion in contributions to the Univer sity for September 1984 to August 1985. • Appropriations for the D lence in the Humanities ami Sciences program. • Appropriations for the'-W lence in Engineering program'- !' • Proposing to establish a for mathematics and sdencee®- tion within the College®! EW "TODAY, ABORTION IS SAFER THAN THE FILL. WE MUST R£ MEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE WHEN WOMEN HAD TO RESOtt TO AN ILLEGAL UNDERGROUND FOR ABORTIONS - THUS RISK ING THEIR HEALTH AND THEIR LIVES." Gloria Steinem, editor, Ms. Magazine This Woman made abortion legal for America. At the age of 26 Sarah Weddington became the first woman to address the Supreme Court in the landmark case of Ros V. Wade. ISC GREAT ISSUES presents MS. SARAH WEDDINGTON speaking on ABORTION: WHO HAS THE FINAL SAY? TUESDAY, DEC 3 8:00 PM RUDDER THEATER ADMISSION $1 8.