Acquisition of an Analytical Centrifuge

描述（由申请方提供）：拟从Beckman-Coulter购买ProteomeLab XL-I分析型超浓缩凝胶（Au）。该仪器将明确服务于四个主要和五个次要用户的研究计划，从整个校园的一系列部门。新的Au项目的开发也预计将来自该机构强大的、主要由NIH资助的生命科学界的一批额外的研究人员。虽然该机构的多名研究人员进行了分析超离心实验，但这项工作完全是在服务设施的场外费用或通过合作进行的，因为该大学或纳什维尔附近的其他任何地方都没有可用的仪器。最近的仪器位于200多英里外的孟菲斯的圣裘德儿童医院。对于数量有限的研究者进行的明确界定的特定研究项目，使用场外服务设施费用就足够了。然而，随着所需实验数量的增加，成本迅速增长。此外，有些样品无法运离现场，当需要联系外部团体提供服务时，常规分析和项目开发受到抑制。当地Au设施的可用性与现成的机制相结合，通过结构生物学中心宣传资源并与感兴趣的科学家合作，将对NIH赞助的基础和转化研究产生广泛的积极影响。公共卫生相关性：超级分析仪的可用性将意味着范德比尔特大学的医学和生物学研究人员在全面解决有关正常细胞中特定蛋白质的作用及其在疾病状态中的错误功能的问题方面的能力的巨大飞跃。分析超离心被广泛认为是表征生物大分子的重要工具，推动了包括生物化学、癌症生物学、细胞生物学、发育生物学、免疫学、微生物学、药理学和结构生物学在内的各种领域的研究计划。Au在校园的可用性将显着提高范德比尔特生命科学界的研究小组的生产力，这主要是致力于人类健康的研究和治疗策略的发展，以对抗疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Purchase of a ProteomeLab XL-I analytical ultracentrifuge (AU) from Beckman-Coulter is proposed. This instrument will explicitly serve the research programs of four major and five minor users from a range of departments across the campus. The development of new AU projects is also anticipated from a cadre of additional investigators from the strong, largely NIH-funded life sciences community at this institution. While multiple investigators at this institution perform analytical ultracentrifugation experiments, this work has been exclusively performed at off-site fee for service facilities or through collaboration because there is no instrument available at this university or anywhere else in the Nashville vicinity. The closest instrument is located at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, more than 200 miles away. Use of off-site fee for service facilities is sufficient for specific well-defined research projects by a limited number of investigators. However, the costs grow rapidly as the number of experiments needed increases. Moreover, some samples are not amendable to transportation off site, and routine analysis and project development is inhibited when it is necessary to contact outside groups to perform the service. The availability of a local AU facility combined with a ready mechanism to advertise the resource and work with interested scientists through the Center for Structural Biology will have a broad positive impact on NIH-sponsored basic and translational research at our institution. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The availability of an analytical ultracentrifuge will mean a dramatic leap forward in the ability of medical and biological researchers at Vanderbilt University to comprehensively address questions about the roles of specific proteins in normal cells and their mis-function in disease states. Analytical ultracentrifugation is broadly viewed as an important tool for characterization of biological macromolecules, fueling research programs in a variety of areas including Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Immunology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and Structural Biology. The availability of AU on campus will significantly enhance the productivity of the research groups in the Vanderbilt life sciences community, which is largely devoted to studies of human health and development of therapeutic strategies to combat disease.