We request funds to purchase a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) Biacore S200 instrument. This equipment will be installed in the Department of Biochemistry at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) as an institution-wide shared resource. The requested equipment will replace our outdated 15- year old Biacore3000 instrument that has been a workhorse for the quantitative assessment of binding interactions by numerous NIH-funded investigators. The Biacore3000 model was discontinued in 2015, and importantly, the Biacore3000 instrument will no longer be serviced or parts supported by the manufacturer GE Healthcare effective 2021. The Department of Biochemistry has a strong history of providing shared biophysical instrumentation to a diverse group of NIH-funded investigators in Milwaukee and southeast Wisconsin since 1992 when the X-ray crystallography facility was created. The Biacore S200 instrument will play a critical role in the expansion of drug discovery on campus that has recently benefitted from over $5M investments in infrastructure and the commitment to hire 2- 3 tenure-track faculty into the Program in Chemical Biology. Consistent with its record of major investments in biophysical research infrastructure and facilities, along with its 15-year track record of support of the Biacore3000 instrument, MCW has committed space to house the new Biacore S200, funds for service contracts, and salary support for technical staff to ensure training of the users and maintenance and repairs of the instrument. We describe projects from 5 major users with NIH funding and 6 minor users (5 with NIH funding). The user projects span a range of biomolecular interaction and drug discovery studies on soluble and integral membrane proteins and their complexes with other proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates and other ligands. These projects will benefit from the Biacore S200 instrument due to increased sensitivity and throughput, along with automated protocols for the rapid identification and measurement of kinetic parameters of small molecule binders. When installed, this instrument will be the only Biacore S200 in the state of Wisconsin, and will be one of only three Biacore S200 instruments at academic institutions in the midwest (Missouri and Minnesota). The new instrument will be maintained by a staff with 14 years of experience in SPR technology, and is primarily responsible for the operation and maintenance of our Biacore3000 instrument. Users will be trained in the operation of the Biacore S200 and instrument time will be allocated using the existing scheduling system. A standing local advisory committee provides oversight of operations and conflict resolution. Acquisition of the Biacore S200 instrument requested in this S10 application will have a significant impact on NIH-funded biomedical research programs at MCW and other institutions in the region.
As a nationally prominent freestanding medical school, the Medical College of Wisconsin is committed to building a regional resource for biophysics and structural biology to support key research programs in cancer, cardiovascular disease, inflammation and infectious diseases, metabolic diseases, kidney diseases, digestive diseases, and diabetes. The Department of Biochemistry is the foundation of this effort. Enhanced access to state-of-the-art surface plasmon resonance technology requested in this application will contribute to drug discovery efforts and basic research for NIH-funded research programs and will directly impact the medical education and research missions of the College and its partner institutions in southeast Wisconsin.
