This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program, Marion Gotz and colleagues Allison A. Calhoun, Marcus A. Juhasz and Timothy Machonkin from Whitman College will acquire a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer to support research in areas of 1) medicinal chemistry including design, synthesis and evaluation of inhibitors for a variety of proteases, 2) bioinorganic chemistry such as in determination of metal-ion and substrate binding in a metalloenzyme family, 3) physical chemistry such as effects of hydrotropes on micelle structure and chemistry, and 4) physical organic chemistry such as design and synthesis of carboranes as weakly coordinating counterions of strong acids.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, to characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The results from these NMR studies will have an impact in synthetic organic/inorganic chemistry and biochemistry. This instrument will be an integral part of teaching as well as research.
