MRI: Acquisition of a State-of-the-Art Small Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS) Instrument for Research and Education

授予康涅狄格大学的这一奖项是为了表彰其购买了一台多功能小角X射线散射(SAXS)仪器，该仪器也可用于广角和掠角散射测量。SAXS是表征从几个纳米到几百个纳米的长度尺度结构的有力工具。它提供有关材料的形状、大小、相对分子质量、多分散性和颗粒间相互作用的信息。该仪器将进一步促进在聚合物科学、分子生物学、制药科学、纳米材料和能源研究方面的正在进行的研究。它将被用来回答基本问题，例如：无机模板和催化剂的顺序是什么？各种靶向药物载体的结构对其功能有何影响？是什么因素控制着生物衍生构件的关联性？以及，在分子组装中结构是如何形成的？SAXS仪器将被安置在一个共享的用户设施中，该设施为整个校园和当地行业的研究人员提供访问权限。它将使研究项目能够改善医疗保健，开发更高效的能源，并生产出性能优越的材料。该仪器将用于通过本科生、研究生和博士后的实践研究经验以及结构表征课程的课堂演示来培训下一代科学家。

This award to the University of Connecticut is for the acquisition of a versatile Small-angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) instrument that can also be used for wide-angle and grazing-angle scattering measurements. SAXS is a powerful tool for the characterization of structures at length scales from a few to a few hundred nanometers. It provides information on the shape, size, molecular weight, polydispersity, and interparticle interactions of materials. This instrument will further ongoing research in polymer science, molecular biology, pharmaceutical science, nanomaterials, and energy research. It will be used to answers fundamental questions, such as: What is the ordering of inorganic templates and catalysts? How does the structure of various targeted drug carriers affect their function? What factors control the associations of bio-derived building blocks? And, how do structures form in molecular assemblies? The SAXS instrument will be housed in a shared user facility, which provides access to researchers across campus as well as local industry. It will enable research projects that improve health care, develop more efficient sources of energy, and produce materials with superior properties. The instrument will be used to train the next generation of scientists through hands-on research experiences for undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-docs, as well as classroom demonstrations in structural characterization courses.