Center of Biomedical Research Excellence in Protein Structure & Function (COBRE-PSF)

COBRE Pilot Project Leaders were tenured or tenure-track faculty who were interested in developing a promising new line of research that incorporates a significant emphasis on protein structure and function, and that took advantage of both the interactivity among Center participants and the Center's Core Labs. Pilot Project Leaders were either junior faculty, returning COBRE Graduates, or more established faculty researchers whose participation was strengthening the center overall. These grants supported proposals of high quality in terms of originality, scientific interest, and likelihood of growing into a larger project that will be competitive for funding through the NIH R01 mechanism.

Pilot Project Directors

The COBRE External Advisory Committee was comprised of a group of prominent scientists.  These scientists have strong records of training and mentoring, and outstanding credentials in research in areas highly relevant to the theme of this COBRE. In addition, they have extensive experience in management of research projects and research grants, particularly NIH grants. They were all excellent advisors and scientist role models.

Most Recent Members

Emeritus Members

Much of our Center's success in regard to launching junior investigators on successful career paths during the three phases of the program was attributable to our mentoring program. Each COBRE Investigator was mentored by at least one senior faculty Mentor selected on the basis of his/her experience and a genuine interest in the success of the mentee. In some cases two Mentors were appointed for a given mentee to obtain an appropriate balance between local campus knowledge and specific scientific expertise. Mentors were compensated for their effort through the Administrative Core. Each Investigator had a personal mentoring plan that was prepared in collaboration with the Mentor. The COBRE program director met with each new COBRE Investigator and his/her Mentor at the start of their program to review COBRE objectives and the elements of the individual mentoring plan for that Investigator. At that meeting each new Investigator was provided with a copy of the book "At the Helm" by Kathy Barker as one avenue of preparing him/her for the challenges they might encounter on the road ahead. Finally, the Mentor and Mentee together prepare a written mentoring progress report as part of our overall Annual Progress Report to NIH. 

Each COBRE investigator and his/her mentor met with the program director and the Leadership Committee twice annually to discuss progress in achieving their individual goals as well as the goals of the COBRE program. This was concurrent with updating their entry on the Career Progress Table that COBRE-PFS used to track progress and accomplishments of the junior investigators (i.e., formative assessment). Evidence of good progress in meeting the milestones set out in the individual mentoring plans were necessary for continued support. 

In 2014 COBRE-PSF initiated a Writing Program to strengthen the academic and proposal writing skills of faculty, with the long-term goal of improving funding rates and supporting publication. The program provided workshops on grant writing and other science writing topics and worked individually with participants on academic and professional documents. The program was launched in summer 2014 with eight faculty participants from four Kansas universities (Kansas State University, Wichita State University, University of Kansas, and University of Kansas School of Medicine).

The essence of a Center is a group of investigators with overlapping interests interacting synergistically and productively around shared facilities (i.e., Core Labs). The COBRE-PSF monthly meetings brought together all pilot project investigators, mentors, Core directors, the program director, previous COBRE graduates and others. These meetings were fundamental to the success of the COBRE. Junior (and senior) faculty shared current research progress and plans with a diverse set of engaged scientists who provided helpful criticism, technical advice, and in many cases offered assistance. These meetings also fostered the development of new collaborations among the participants, cooperation between the four participating institutions, and they contributed to the sense of a vigorous, thematic Center of Excellence. Pilot project leaders were expected to participate as fully as possible in these meetings.

In line with our goal of enhancing the overall professional development of junior faculty, COBRE investigators were asked to identify well-known scientists in their field whom they would like to get to know personally, and then work with the Administrative Core to invite them for a seminar visit. In addition to their seminar, visitors spent part of their visit meeting with COBRE participants, and with the investigator who invited them providing the investigator an extended opportunity to discuss research topics of mutual interest. Thus each hosting junior investigator had an opportunity for an individual consultation with a recognized expert in his or her field. 

The COBRE center has sponsored 22 regional workshops and symposia, many on topics suggested by one or more COBRE PIs. COBRE investigators benefited greatly not only from the scientific and technical perspectives of the workshop but also in terms of professional networking, and the experience of planning a larger-scale event like a regional workshop. The Great Plains Regional Annual Symposium on Protein and Biomolecular Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (GRASP NMR) meeting that was started in 2006 by a COBRE investigator is just one example of this. The GRASP NMR symposium series succeeded so well it became a free-standing annual event that is still held yearly.

List of Workshops

• Workshop on Fragment-based Drug Discovery (June 11, 2013)
• Biacore Workshop (June 12, 2012)
• Teaching Workshop on Protein Mass Spectrometry (March 10, 2007)
• Stress Proteins and Chaperones in Medicine and Biology (October 30, 2003)
• From Cloning to Crystallization (July 14-15, 2003)
• Analyzing Protein Interactions: A Workshop (March 11, 2003)

List of Symposia and Seminars

• 2016 SUMO (Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier) Symposium (March 25, 2016)
• Symposium on Protein Structure and Function (October 7-6, 2012)
• What's Hot: Working with The University of Kansas Biomedical Core Laboratories (September 14, 2012)
• Great Plains Regional Annual Symposium on Protein and Biomolecular NMR (held annually 2006 to present)
• Structural Biology Center Dedication and Symposium on Protein Structure and Function (October 15-16, 2004)

Our External Advisory Committee (EAC) is comprised of four outstanding protein scientists representing both academic and industrial settings. As a group, they visited the COBRE Program annually. During these visits, our EAC members heard formal presentations of research progress from all our investigators. Time was also scheduled to allow private one-on-one meetings of COBRE investigators with one or more of our EAC members. These meetings were extremely popular with both the EAC members and our investigators. They provided an additional opportunity for junior faculty to interact with highly successful individual scientists and learn from their feedback and example.