RELEASE ON RECEIPT





                                        Contact: Marguerite Beck

     U.VA. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AWARDED $750,000 GRANT FOR NEW
                       BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH

     CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., Feb. 9--A center for biomedical mass
spectrometry will be established at The University of Virginia
School of Medicine thanks to a $750,000 grant from the W.M. Keck
Foundation of Los Angeles. The center will enable University
faculty members and investigators from around the world to use
innovative biomedical research techniques originally developed at
the University by Donald Hunt, professor of chemistry and
pathology.
     Access to Hunt's methodologies could help researchers develop
new vaccines or drug treatments for such diseases as AIDS, whooping
cough and certain forms of cancer.
     Hunt has assembled a unique system for the preparation of
biological samples and the determination of protein sequences
called tandem mass spectrometry. A mainstay of analytical
chemistry, the mass spectrometer has long been used to determine
the chemical composition of substances by actually weighing the
molecules. Hunt discovered that, by linking instruments in tandem,
mass spectrometry could be used to determine the structure of
proteins and other biological molecules.
     Tandem mass spectrometry offers a quick and efficient way to
analyze the chemical structure of proteins and other large
molecules. In fact, the process is up to a thousand times more
sensitive than the standard method, known as Ednam degradation.
     Understanding the structure of proteins is critical to
developing new drugs, Hunt said. "If you want to create a drug that
causes a cell to do something, either grow or make a particular set
of chemicals, the drug has to bind with a protein on the cell
called a receptor. If you want to build a drug that interferes with
how a bacterium does something, the target of the drug is a
protein," he said.
     "The first thing you need to know is the structure of the
protein. Then you can usually build a small molecule that binds
with that protein -- and only that protein -- and modifies its
actions."
     The benefits of tandem mass spectrometry became clear early in
1994, when U.Va. researchers employed Hunt's technique to identify
an antigen -- a chemical that triggers the body's immune response -
- for melanoma, a common and often deadly form of skin cancer. Now
scientists are using tandem mass spectrometry to search for other
antigens that alert the immune system to viral infections,
bacterial infections and various cancers.  
     Expected to become fully operational this summer, the W. M.
Keck Foundation Center for Biomedical Mass Spectrometry will be
housed in Jordan Hall, the University's medical research and
teaching center. The $750,000 grant will cover equipment
maintenance and supplies, a seminar program and salaries for a
center director and a technician to operate the instruments,
support the training program and help medical researchers develop
applications for the technology.
     "We were able to obtain the instrumentation with funding from
the state and from the University's Pratt Endowment," said Dr. Erik
Hewlett, professor of medicine and pharmacology and associate dean
for research in the Medical School. "Now with the Keck grant, we
can put it on line immediately and share it with the research
community."
     Hewlett added that the Keck Center will make its equipment
readily available to researchers without charging high user fees.
"That's really what promotes innovation -- allowing people to take
some risks," he said.
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                                        February 8, 1995