This award provides partial support for the purchase of an 800 MHz NMR spectrometer to be used to study the structure, function and dynamics of a variety of biological macromolecules. The use of NMR for study of the structure and behavior large biological molecules has rapidly expanded in recent years as the availability of instruments capable of operating at high frequencies and field strengths has increased, and as techniques for the use of high-field NMR have been perfected. Only at the highest frequencies can instruments resolve the minute differences in the NMR signals of each atom in a large protein or nucleic acid. These minute differences allow researchers to locate the relative positions of each atom with the precision needed to establish structure at the atomic level. The three major users of this instrument will study the structure of NtrC, a bacterial two-component signaling system, the design of sequence-specific DNA binding proteins, the structures of RNAs with group I introns, and the structure of the 3' ends of the RNA genome of brome mosaic virus, among other problems. Six other users will investigate free energy landscapes for protein folding, tubulin interactions with transcription factors, RNA folding, the structure of ribonucleoprotein complexes, and the structures of a variety of proteins that function in multi-subunit complexes. The request for NSF support was submitted through a joint program of the NSF and the NIH that allows both agencies to support the purchase of very expensive research instruments to be shared by three or more independent users. NSF funds for this award are provided jointly by the Division of Biological Infrastructure and by the Office of Multi-Disciplinary Activities of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences. In addition to funds provided by NSF, partial support for the purchase is being provided by the Shared Instrumentation Grant program of the NIH. In addition to the support provided by federal sources, the University will provide approximately $1 million of its own funds to purchase the instrument.
