MRI-R2: Acquisition of an automatic isothermal titration microcalorimeter

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0959422Mallik"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."This collaborative proposal from the North Dakota State University and the University of South Dakota requests funds to purchase an automatic isothermal titration microcalorimeter (auto-ITC200 from Microcal/GE Healthcare Biosciences) for Biomaterials research and education. The proposed instrument determines binding parameters (i.e., stoichiometry, association constant, enthalpy and entropy) in a single experiment, employing a very small sample size (5-10 g per experiment). The instrument determines binding constants in the range 102 - 109 M - 1 and the limit can be further enhanced by employing competitive binding techniques. It is fully automated to run 50 samples per day. Currently, 10 faculty researchers (25 graduate and 20 undergraduate students) at NDSU and USD are studying the interactions of peptide nanofibers, lipid- and polymer-based nanoparticles with proteins, DNA fragments, aptamers and antibodies. Complete thermodynamic characterization of the binding is a critical need for all of these research projects. However, the only ITC available is located in the Biochemistry Department at NDSU and the instrument is more than 12 years old (VP ITC from MicroCal Inc., purchased in 1997) and the injection assembly is not communicating properly with the control computer. The instrument is inadequate to satisfy the needs of the growing numbers of Biomaterials researchers of the two universities. In addition, this instrument is not set-up as a cost-center and often the access is fairly restricted. The proposed auto-ITC200 instrument will ensure that the faculty researchers and their students at NDSU and USD have access to a state-of-the-art microcalorimeter. This will also impart appropriate training to the graduate and the undergraduate students at both universities. The proposed instrument will be set-up as a cost-center and the generated user fees will be used for maintenance and upgrade. To effectively share the instrument between NDSU and USD, cyber infrastructure-based protocol will be followed for time allocation, data processing and data retrieval using the North Dakota NSF EPSCoR supported, high-speed network connection.