REQUEST TO PURCHASE A 400 MHZ NMR SPECTROMETER

Washington University, Saint Louis MO

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Washington University (WU) in St Louis is among the nation's top research institutions and supports extensive research at its two primary campuses, Danforth and medical center, which are separated from each other by a distance of three miles. The WU High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility is the University's only open access resource for solution-state analytical and structural NMR applications. Each year for over two decades it has served in excess of 40 separate chemical, biochemical and biomedical research groups from both campuses. Nevertheless, because the NMR Facility's entire suite of instrumentation is located solely on the Danforth Campus, WU's medical center campus researchers have not had immediate nearby access to NMR analysis, as is required of modern, biologically oriented, synthetic chemistry. This has proven to be a significant hardship and substantive hindrance to ongoing NIH funded research. To address this problem, the WU NMR Facility requests NCRR SIG funding to purchase a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer to be located at the WU medical center campus. For the first time, WU medical center campus researchers will have convenient and immediate access to this powerful analytical technique. This application was written at the urging of established, NIH funded, WU medical center campus researchers who require significantly enhanced access to analytical and structural NMR tools. The proposal requests funds of $244,680, which combined with internal matching funds of $80,000 are sufficient to purchase the requested instrument, a 400 MHz (9.4 tesla) Varian, Inc. (Palo Alto) DirectDrive" system. Advances in NMR instrument technology during the past decade, in particular in the areas of superconducting magnet and dewar design, and digital control and communications, provide extraordinary spectrometer capabilities at modest cost. The DirectDrive" architecture represents a new generation of console technology from Varian, one that leverages the tremendous advances in digital electronics of the past decade. Locating the requested instrument at the WU medical center campus will immediately and significantly benefit ongoing NIH funded research programs, bringing the versatile and powerful tools of solution-state NMR analysis into the heart of WU's biomedical investigator community.