Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a 600 MHz NMR with Cryoprobe for the Greater Rocky Mountain Region

University Of Denver, Denver CO

Investigators

Abstract

An award is made to the University of Denver to acquire a state-of-the-art 600 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer with a Cryoprobe and a cooled SampleCase. This instrument will support researchers at the University of Denver and across the greater Rocky Mountain region, enabling new research ranging from understanding biomolecular interactions to characterizing functional tools in complex biological systems. This project will support modernization of curricular activities in undergraduate (Organic lab sequence, Instrumental Analysis, and Frontiers in Chemistry) and graduate courses (Organic Spectroscopy and Biophysical Methods), greatly increasing the number of students exposed modern 2D and multinuclear NMR experiments. High-school, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers will benefit from training on state-of-the-art equipment. This includes students in the SHINE@DU program, which provides paid 8-week summer internships to local junior and senior high-school students largely from groups underrepresented in the sciences. This project will benefit the citizen science Foldit game, which will continue to improve via validation of solved structures. Responsible stewardship and conservation of finite helium resources will continue through helium recovery and recycling at the University of Denver. The new instrument will enable biomolecular and chemical research owing to increased sensitivity, resolution, transceiver capability, and access that is not currently possible at the University of Denver and is severely limited in the region. This NMR will enable biomolecular researchers to (1) understand how nucleic acids interact with proteins to inhibit aggregation, (2) investigate the mechanism of how synthetic protein mimics modulate aberrant protein-protein interactions, and (3) discover and characterize novel metallophores. Chemical biology and chemical researchers will use the new NMR spectrometer to: (1) elucidate the structures of complex polyheterocycles, (2) characterize and investigate organometallic complexes as tools for probing biological systems, and (3) identify and analyze end-groups of functional linear polymers. A number of regional users, including researchers at primarily undergraduate institutions and area start-up companies, will have remote and in-person access to the new NMR. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.