MRI: Acquisition of a solid/liquid-state 700 MHz NMR instrument for the Southeast

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An award is made to Louisiana State University (LSU) to support the acquisition of a 700 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer with both solid- and liquid-state capabilities. The instrument provides Louisiana with high-field NMR capability to enable a variety of biomolecular projects, improve the quality of research and student training, and establish a regional high-field NMR facility in the Southeast. The inter-organizational instrument will immediately serve 23 research programs from 5 LSU campuses and 7 regional institutions, bringing together 189 postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate researchers. This user base includes 85 female researchers, 21 African American students, and 11 users from other minorities. A comprehensive program (including user-training and open-house events, NMR courses, undergraduate research and outreach programs, and seminars and conferences) will recruit new users and facilitate training in NMR spectroscopy, chemical and structural biology, microbiology, plant biology, and biomaterial research. The new instrument affords a significant improvement of infrastructure by a 1.4–1.8-fold enhancement of magnetic field strengths over the existing facility. The tremendous increase in resolution and sensitivity has immense potential to advance knowledge across diverse research fields. The projects enabled by the acquisition include studies of (i) protein-membrane interactions, (ii) protein-protein and protein-ligand complexes that will reveal the biochemical processes associated with a range of physiologic processes, (iii) carbohydrate structures in wild-type and transgenic plants and fungi, and (iv) biomimetic materials. The instrument will encourage and enable users with varying levels of NMR expertise to embrace NMR as a valuable component in their research projects. The data collected on the instrument will be used in course offerings and disseminated in peer-reviewed journals and at scientific meetings.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.