A Coordinated Infrastructure for NMR in the Physical and Life Sciences: A 1 GHz Spectrometer at Birmingham

伯明翰的房子和支持亨利惠康建筑生物分子核磁共振（HWB-NMR），自2004年以来，提供了一个持久的，最先进的核磁共振服务在600,800和900MHz为英国用户。在威康基金会的支持下，该设施将70%的可用高场核磁共振时间免费提供给高质量项目的外部用户，并配备了专家支持人员。HWB-NMR已经接待了来自英国各地实验室的bb50个研究小组，从而确保了英国在超高场核磁共振领域的领导地位，并定期成为欧盟接入网络的一部分。最近的评论很好地证明了该设施对英国核磁共振界的普及和重要性，该评论将其服务定性为“英国重要的科学资源”和“一个明显被大量使用的优秀国家设施”；Wellcome Trust在2018-2023年期间续签了HWB-NMR运营的资金。HWB-NMR提议增加一个1GHz光谱仪，这将为英国用户提供一个独特的NMR仪器系列，涵盖600、800、900MHz和1GHz光谱仪，主要用于生物医学应用。通过在一个地点提供这些服务，并在研究委员会和惠康基金会的联合支持下，将创建一个独特的资源，这将使英国核磁共振社区在国内和国际上都处于核磁共振研究的前沿。伯明翰的具体服务将包括基于示踪剂和实时代谢，为此，我们将提供600、800MHz和1GHz的微型冷冻探针，以获得最终的质量灵敏度，并将开发核磁共振方法，促进这一系列的研究。通过与莱斯特大学的结构生物学研究（Geerten Vuister教授，将被任命为联络客座教授）形成战略联盟，我们也将能够提供核磁共振方法方面的具体专业知识，包括核磁共振脉冲序列和计算方面（BBSRC资助），药物发现和核磁共振软件开发通过CCPN项目（MRC资助）。随着CCPNs的28个国家和国际合作伙伴及其广泛的外展计划，1GHz光谱仪将牢固地嵌入NMR社区。大学提供的研究支持将特别侧重于从HWB-NMR独特的NMR仪器范围中受益的方法开发。伯明翰和莱斯特之间在高度先进的核磁共振技术方面的直接互动也旨在进一步加强他们在设备和专业知识共享方面的现有努力，例如最近在米德兰兹大学成功建立了共享低温电子显微镜设施。核磁共振和EM技术共同为研究支撑正常和异常细胞功能的分子机制的综合结构生物学方法的目标做出贡献。

Birmingham houses and supports the Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR (HWB-NMR), which since 2004 has provided a durable, state-of-the-art NMR service at 600, 800 and 900MHz for UK users. With support of the Wellcome Trust, the facility offers 70% of its available high-field NMR time free of charge to external users with high-quality projects and has expert support staff in place. HWB-NMR has hosted >50 research groups from laboratories across the UK, thus assuring UK leadership in ultra-high-field NMR and has regularly been part of EU access networks.The popularity and importance of this facility for the UK NMR community is well evidenced by recent reviews, which qualified its services as "the vital scientific resource in UK" and "an excellent national facility which is clearly heavily used"; the Wellcome Trust renewed funding of the HWB-NMR operations for the period 2018-2023.HWB-NMR proposes the addition of a 1GHz spectrometer, that will provide UK users with a unique line-up of NMR instruments covering 600, 800, 900MHz and 1GHz spectrometers, primarily for biomedical applications. By providing these services at one location, and with the combined support of research councils and the Wellcome Trust, a unique resource will be created that will put the UK NMR community at the forefront of NMR research, both nationally and internationally.Specific services in Birmingham will include tracer-based and real-time metabolism, for which we will offer access to micro-cryoprobes at 600, 800MHz and 1GHz for ultimate mass sensitivity and will develop NMR methods that facilitate this line of research.By forming a strategic alliance with the structural biology research at the University of Leicester (Prof Geerten Vuister, to be appointed as liaising visiting professor) we will also be able to offer specific expertise in NMR methodology, both in NMR pulse sequences and computational aspects (BBSRC funded), drug discovery and NMR software development via the CCPN project (MRC funded). With CCPNs 28 national and international partners and its extensive outreach programme, the 1GHz spectrometer will be firmly embedded in the NMR community. University-provided research support will particularly focus on methodology developments that benefit from the unique range of NMR instrumentation at HWB-NMR.The direct interactions between Birmingham and Leicester in highly advanced NMR technology also aim to further strengthen their existing efforts in equipment and expertise sharing, as exemplified by the recent successful establishment of a shared cryo-EM facility across the Midlands universities. Jointly, the NMR and EM techniques contribute to the goal of integrated structural biology approaches for studying the molecular mechanisms that underpin both normal and aberrant cellular functioning.