The Physics Department has a considerable collection of equipment that is utilized for research in biological magnetic resonance. In particular, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) facilities of the department consist of:

• Three multi-nuclear, high resolution, pulsed spectrometers;

• One mulit-nuclear, broadline, pulsed spectrometer.

All of these have superconducting magnets and variable temperature capability.

The high resolution instruments are interfaced with Sun computers and include:

• State-of-the-art Varian-Inova narrow-bore 500 MHz and Varian-Unity wide-bore 300 MHz spectrometers

• A 200 MHz spectrometer based on the General Electric console formerly used with the 300 MHz spectrometer

Additional Sun workstations are used for off-line processing and post-processing evaluation of NMR data. The broadline instrument has a 4.2 T magnet and is home-built with data analysis carried out on a PC. The high resolultion instruments are mainly focused on the study of the structure and dynamics of proteins and peptides in liquid solutions. The broadline instrument is used primarily in the study of biological membranes.

EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) facilities include a Bruker ESP 300 X-Band spectrometer. The spectrometer has variable temperature capability and is computer operated. At present the EPR spectrometer is used in studies of biological membranes and cells, protein dynamics, and aging.

The facilities for preparation and characterization of biological samples include a cold room, refrigerated centrifuges, spectrophotometers, incubators, a lyophilizer, a sonicator, chromatography columns, gradient HPLC system, ultrapure water, and other appropriate equipment.

Additional computing facilities include a Silicon Graphics Octane computer with Sybyl, QUANTA and CHARMm software for molecular graphics and dynamics work.

NMR Center Operations Director