With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation program (MRI), Roger Rowlett and colleagues Anthony Chianese and G. Richard Geier III from Colgate University will acquire a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer (XRD) to support research in chemistry and biochemistry including the study of enzyme mechanisms and structure, organometallic catalysis, porphyrinic macrocycles as well as examination of the mechanism of bacterial carbonic anhydrase in E. coli. The instrumentation will also impact undergraduate research, training, and teaching at Colgate and regional undergraduate institutions.
The technique of single-crystal X-ray crystallography allows accurate and precise determination of the full three dimensional structure of a molecule, including bond distances and angles, and it provides accurate information about the spatial arrangement of molecules relative to the neighboring molecules. These studies will have an impact in a number of areas ranging from synthetic chemistry to systems of biological interest.
