9312233 Gordon This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at Harvard University in the purchase of an upgrade for a 500 MHz, multinuclear, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer. This upgrade will enhance greatly research in a number of areas including the following: 1) Total synthesis of interesting and challenging molecules such as: (a) miroestrol, a structurally novel ingredient of an oriental medicinal herb with interesting biological properties, (b) paeoniflorin, a complex polycyclic plant glucoside and (c) inhibitors of tumor angiogenesis such as ovalicin, 2) Natural product synthesis of palytoxin, 3) Conformational studies of C- and O-glycosides, 4) Polyether macrolide halichondrins, 5) Structural and functional studies of signaling proteins, 6) Structural and mechanistic studies of nucleic acids and nucleic-acid binding proteins, %%% A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer is used to obtain information about molecular structure (what types of carbon and/or hydrogen atoms and/or hetero-atoms are present, what are the relative number of each type of atoms and how are they connected to one another in the molecule) and molecular dynamics (how rapidly are the various parts of the molecule moving). This instrument is essential for any meaningful, modern synthetic chemistry research program. ***
