Acquisition of Biophysics Instrumentation for Core Facility

资金要求为创建威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校生物物理仪器设施所需费用的50%。这个校园设施将是生物化学系3000万美元扩建计划的一部分。该设施将容纳6台主要仪器，用于研究生物和其他大分子的络合、构象和结构。这些仪器包括MicroCal等温滴定量热计、Calorimetry Sciences差示扫描量热计、Beckman分析超离心机、Aviv圆二色光谱仪、Nicolet傅立叶变换红外光谱仪和Pharmacia表面等离子体共振探测器。此外，还将聘请一名仪器专家，为学生、教职员工提供安装、使用和维护所需仪器的技术援助。所要求仪器的六个主要用户是使用生物物理方法研究生物聚合物及其相互作用的教员。这些教员分布在大学的四个学部——生物化学、化学、化学工程和药学。他们有积极的合作，经常分享设备和想法，并参加共同的培训和学位课程。他们将共同管理拟议的核心设施的运营。所要求的仪器的主要用户将是在主要用户实验室接受培训的大约100名学生和工作人员。此外，所要求的文书将大大加强十个二级用户的研究和培训工作。所有主要和次要用户的实验室都在拟议设施的两个城市街区内。此外，预计该设施的用途和影响将很快扩大，远远超出主要和次要用户的研究小组。对所请求的仪器的需求是极端的。生物系统分析的物理方法在很大程度上依赖于仪器。威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校的研究人员现在有能力大规模生产生物分子，并对这些分子进行有限的物理分析。然而，没有等温滴定量热计，没有差示扫描量热计，没有分析性超离心机，没有表面等离子体共振探测器存在于威斯康星大学的任何校园。麦迪逊校区有两台过时的圆二色光谱仪，只有三台傅立叶变换红外光谱仪，每一台都是主要和次要用户无法使用的。本提案旨在解决现代生物物理仪器的严重缺乏问题。

Funds are requested for 50% of the cost of creating the University of Wisconsin-Madison Facility for Biophysics Instrumentation. This campus facility would be part of a $30 million expansion of the Department of Biochemistry. The facility would house six major instruments for the study of the complexation, conformation, and structure of biological and other macromolecules. These instruments are a MicroCal isothermal titration calorimeter, Calorimetry Sciences differential scanning calorimeter, Beckman analytical ultracentrifuge, Aviv circular dichroism spectrometer, Nicolet Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, and Pharmacia surface plasmon resonance detector. In addition, an Instrumentation Specialist would be hired to provide technical assistance to students, staff, and faculty on the installation, use, and maintenance of the requested instruments. The six principal users of the requested instrumentation are faculty members who use biophysical methods to study biopolymers and their interactions. These faculty reside in four divisions of the university- -Biochemistry, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Pharmacy. They have active collaborations, routinely share equipment and ideas, and participate in common training and degree programs. Together, they would manage the operations of the proposed core facility. The major users of the requested instruments would be the approximately 100 students and staff being trained in the laboratories of the primary users. In addition, the requested instruments would greatly enhance the research and training efforts of ten secondary users. The laboratories of all primary and secondary users are within two city blocks of the proposed facility. Further, it is envisioned that the usage and hence the impact of the facility would soon broaden well beyond the research groups of the primary and secondary users. The need for the requested instrumentation is extreme. Physical approaches to the analysis of biological systems depend heavily on instrumentation. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison now have the ability to produce biomolecules on a large scale, and to perform limited physical analyses on these molecules. Yet, no isothermal titration calorimeters, no differential scanning calorimeters, no analytical ultracentrifuges, and no surface plasmon resonance detectors exist on any campus of the University of Wisconsin. The Madison campus has two antiquated circular dichroism spectrometers and only three Fourier transform infrared spectrometers, each of which is inaccessible to the primary and secondary users. This proposal is intended to address this crippling lack of modern biophysical instrumentation.