800 MHz NMR Spectrometer

该合同为一组16名研究人员采购800 MHz核磁共振（NMR）光谱仪提供部分支持。该仪器将被放置在巴尔的摩的一个新的结构生物学中心，同时放置的还有一台已有6年历史的600 MHz核磁共振仪；这两种仪器将供马里兰大学和马里兰大学生物技术中心的教师和研究人员使用。美国国家科学基金会的支持请求是通过美国国家科学基金会和美国国立卫生研究院的联合计划提交的，该计划允许两个机构支持购买非常昂贵的研究仪器，这些仪器将由三个或更多的独立用户共享。因此，除了NSF通过该奖项提供的资金外，部分购买支持由NIH的共享仪器资助计划提供。除了联邦政府提供的支持外，该大学还将提供大约100万美元的自有资金来购买该仪器。近年来，随着能够在高频和场强下工作的仪器的增加以及使用这些仪器的技术的完善，核磁共振在研究蛋白质和其他大分子的结构和行为方面的应用迅速扩大。只有在最高频率下，仪器才能分辨出大型蛋白质或核酸中每个原子的核磁共振信号的微小差异。这种微小的差异使研究人员能够精确地定位每个原子的相对位置，从而在原子水平上建立结构。该仪器的用户将探索各种主题，所有涉及大蛋白质或几种蛋白质复合物的结构和动力学，需要使用待购买的高场仪器。

This award provides partial support for acquisition of an 800 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometer for a group of 16 investigators. The instrument will be placed in a new center for structural biology in Baltimore along with a six-year old 600 MHz NMR; both instruments will be available for use by faculty and researchers of the University of Maryland and of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Center. The request for NSF support was submitted through an joint program of the NSF and the NIH that allows both agencies to support the purchase of very expensive research instruments that will be shared by three or more independent users. Thus, in addition to funds provided by NSF through this award, partial support for the purchase is being provided by the Shared Instrumentation Grant program of the NIH. In addition to the support provided by federal sources, the University will provide approximately $1 million of its own funds to purchase the instrument.The use of NMR for study of the structure and behavior of proteins and other large molecules has rapidly expanded in recent years as the availability of instruments capable of operating at high frequencies and field strengths has increased, and techniques for their use have been perfected. Only at the highest frequencies can instruments resolve the minute differences in the NMR signals of each atom in a large protein or nucleic acid. The minute differences allow researchers to locate the relative positions of each atom with the precision needed to establish structure at the atomic level. The users of this instrument will explore varied topics, all involving the structure and dynamics of large proteins or complexes of several proteins that require use of a very high field instrument of the type to be purchased.