Acquisition of an 800 MHz NMR Spectrometer for a New Jersey Statewide Facility

A grant has been awarded to Rutgers University under the direction of Dr. Jean Baum to purchase an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer as part of an initiative to develop a New Jersey State-Wide 800 MHz NMR Facility. The 800 MHz NMR will initially serve a minimum of four New Jersey institutions including Rutgers-New Brunswick (NB), Rutgers-Newark, Princeton University and Montclair State University (MSU). Ten faculty members, three from Rutgers-NB/RWJ, one from Rutgers-Newark, four from Princeton and two from MSU are participating in the New Jersey Wide 800 MHz NMR Facility. Access to an 800 MHz NMR will allow the State-Wide group to implement a range of state of the art biological NMR experiments that are currently not feasible on the 500 and 600 MHz NMRs and will enhance their productivity in terms of time intensive NMR projects.

Establishment of the NJ State-Wide 800 MHz NMR Facility will enhance the quality and accessibility of NMR research and education to the NJ community. State of the art NMR research which cannot presently be performed on the lower field instruments that exist at the respective individual institutions will now be accessible to the New Jersey NMR community. In addition, the NJ-State wide 800 MHz NMR facility provides an opportunity for undergraduates, graduates and postdocs to meet researchers from other New Jersey schools, to be trained on state of the art NMR instrumentation and to be exposed to many different NMR research projects. Having the 800 MHz NMR serve a number of different institutions provides an intellectual environment and collaborative framework for NMR users. 'Hands on' NMR experiments will be performed by approximately 60 graduate students, postdocs as well as undergraduates involved in NMR research. The research activities of the members of the facility are in molecular biophysics with emphasis in the following areas: Protein structure determination; Conformational studies and dynamics of folded and unfolded proteins to understand the basis of protein folding and misfolding; Studies of nucleic acid structure and interactions; NMR investigations of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions; Design and conformational analysis of small peptides; NMR methods development for next generation application.

The New Jersey Statewide 800 MHz NMR facility that we will establish will provide infrastructure and enhance the quality and accessibility for many research and educational programs at both private and public Universities in New Jersey. In bringing together this group of Universities, we are establishing an environment of collaboration and are coordinating expertise in NMR from many different institutions. The NJ wide 800 MHz NMR facility provides an opportunity for undergraduates, graduates and postdocs to meet researchers from other New Jersey schools and to be exposed to many different NMR research projects. Having the 800 MHz NMR serve a number of different institutions provides an intellectual environment and collaborative framework for NMR users.