The MICC will continue to serve as a crucial interface for various proposed interdisciplinary projects. Dr. Vijay Sharma is the MICC Director. He is a chemist trained in inorganic and organic chemistry with extensive experience in radiopharmaceutical and conjugation chemistry and will be directly responsible for managing, prioritizing, and executing the various day-to-day activities ofthe MICC. Sam Achilefu, Ph.D., ICMIC preceptor provides additional peptide synthesis and fluorophore chemistry expertise for the MICC. The new MICC will be moving and expand with the BRIGHT Institute onto approximately 1,200 sq. ft. of of space now under construction (Jan. 2011 completion) on the 7* floor of the new BJC Institute of Health building, an 11 story state-of-the-art stmcture in the center of the Washington University Medical School campus (See Appendix 1). In addition, PET chemistry laboratories in the Clinical Sciences Research Building and South Building (Robert Mach, Ph.D.) serve as supplemental resources and radiochemistry laboratories for the ICMIC, thereby enabling full access to high level synthetic chemistry facilities. The DBBS Chemical Biology Labs located down the street from the BJC Institute of Health building house a 300 MHz NMR spectrometer and X-ray diffractometer. Additionally, a new 400 MHz NMR spectrophotometer has been purchased through a shared Instrumentation grant and will be installed in the Biochemistry Department down the street. The Washington University Danforth Campus, Department of Chemistry Spectroscopy Laboratory houses IR, mass spect, and NMR spectrometers available for use by the Core. We have full access to these later instruments for discounted fees. The MICC instruments include a hot cell for PET radiochemistry, Rotovap x 3, vacuum pumps, fume hoods x 8, stills x 4, hot plates, ovens, analytical scales, TLC scanning radiometric detector, computer-controlled gradient HPLC systems x 6 (Waters x 5, Rainin), fraction collector, Fluorometer (Varian), FT-IR (PerkinElmer), UV/Vis spectrophotometer (PerkinElmer), GC-MS spectrophotometer (Varian), chemical synthesis microwave (CEM), sealed glove box, solvents, lead fort and storage. Peptide synthesis can be performed for the MICC under the direction of Dr. Achilefu. Synthetic activities of the several radiochemistry labs on campus are coordinated depending on the needs of ICMIC investigators and project logistics. Several radiopharmaceuticals necessary for execution of ICMIC Projects, such as ^^FHBG (Research Project 4), are synthesized in the MICC for pre-clinical studies and will be synthesized by the Clinical PET Radiopharmacy under an IND for clinical studies. The MICC consists of three functional components: A) chemistry sen/ices for other investigators;B) discovery research and validation of new agents, and C) training of students, post-doctoral fellows, technical staff, and investigators in the development of specialized compounds and reagents for molecular imaging applications.
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