Reporter Volume 25, No.20 March 10, 1994

By ELLEN GOLDBAUM
News Bureau Staff
Deborah Leckband, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UB,
has received a $180,000 grant from the Whitaker Foundation to do
fundamental research on protein adsorption and the forces between
molecules.
Leckband is one of a handful of scientists in the world working on
measuring forces between molecules during molecular recognition, a
prerequisite for engaging in a reaction.
She is conducting some of the research in collaboration with the
Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Biosurfaces in the
UB Department of Biomaterials.
The research is expected to lead to an increase in the lifetime of
prosthetic devices, heart valves, contact lenses and any materials
regularly exposed to biological fluids.
"Forces between molecules determine how rapidly they bind," Leckband
said. "If there is no attractive force between them, they'll collide.
But if there is an attraction, they will react at up to two orders of
magnitude faster."
The research is important for understanding protein reaction rates,
which are critical to the design of biosensors and in determining how
antibodies bind to antigens. In collaborative work with researchers at
the University of Utah, Leckband examines the structures of antibodies
and how they influence the forces between antibodies and antigens.
"Surface fouling is of interest to many research groups," said
Leckband, "but rather than do general experiments where you observe
the effects of biofouling, I am looking at its molecular basis. This
will give us a more powerful level of control over those events by
manipulating the underlying molecular forces."
Leckband, whose work also is being funded by the National Science
Foundation, has held pre- and post-doctoral fellowships from the
National Institutes of Health while working at the University of
California at Santa Barbara and at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
She earned a doctorate in biophysical chemistry from Cornell
University and graduated from Humboldt State University in California.