Funds are requested for the purchase of a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer, which will be located in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Connecticut. The instrument will mainly serve the Departments of Molecular and Cell Biology, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Connecticut - Storrs campus. This instrument will serve five major users and as well as several minor users. The research foci in the main group are: (1) the study of the structure and function of proteins (agrin, rhodopsin, bacteriorhodopsin, lac permease and G-protein coupled receptors); (2) the study of protein folding and dynamics; (3) probing the molecular mechanisms of DNA damage, repair and mutagenesis; (4) probing the endocannabinoid receptor sites to develop therapeutic targets for drug addictions and new pain medications. This instrument will be housed in the 950+ sq.ft. Department of Chemistry NMR facility together with a Bruker DRX-400. The University has three instruments on campus, a Bruker DMX-500, a CheMagnetics CMX-300 (solid state) and the Bruker DRX-400 mentioned above. These instruments lack the resolution, sensitivity and available time to run the projects described above. These researchers currently travel a minimum of an hour to acquire the data needed on several funded projects.
