Ramatoulie Bah
Shayla R. Brooks
Dana Brown
Linwood Creekmore
Torreon N. Creekmore
Vincent Augustus Davis
Peter Eley
Danielle Graves
Paula Harrell
Golar Newby
Elizabeth Rascoe
Carl W. Seward
Eunice Smith
Rodney Stewart
Nelson Veale
Jordan Williams

Jordan Williams
email: joreaga@hotmail.com

Mentors:
Dr. Champion Deivanayagam, Dr. Larry Delucus, Dr. H. Banergee
Internship: University of Alabama
Title: Crystallography

The Purpose of my stay at the University of Alabama (UAB) was to learn how to grow protein crystals. Crystallography is the study of crystals; whose molecules are arranged in a symmetrical manner. There are two components of symmetry, namely rotation and translation, through which molecules can be symmetrically arranged in 236 different ways in three dimensional space. Some popular examples of crystals are quarts, diamonds, and gem stones. Nobody knows how crystals formed and the basis of crystal nucleation still remains an unanswered question.
My job was to help purify and grow crystals of HBHA (Heparin Binding Hemaagluttinin) that is present on the surface of Mycrobacterium Tuberculosis. Near to a 100% purity is a prerequisite for crystal growth and hence purification plays an important role in crystallization. The HBHA harboring E. Coli cells were used to mass-produce the protein in large quantities.