A grant has been awarded under the NSF's MRI program to the University of Southern California under the supervision of Dr. Richard W. Roberts and Dr. Mark Thompson. Funds from this grant will be used to purchase a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer that will be accessible to all departments at USC. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy (also known as NMR) is arguably the most versatile technique available for studying molecules. This instrument will allow scientists at USC to determine the structures and movements of molecules with detail down to less than 1 billionth of a meter, a nanometer. As such, this instrument will have a major positive impact on USC's scientific goals in the areas of 1. Biomedical Nanoscience, 2. Imaging, and 3. Energy. In particular, the instrument will be used 1) to determine the structures of biological molecules (DNA, RNA and proteins) needed for basic research, new therapies, and diagnostics, 2) to examine the motions of biological molecules, 3) to measure the interactions of drugs and drug-like molecules with their therapeutic targets, 4) to study chemical reactions in great detail, and 5) to explore new chemical methods and materials relevant to energy production.
Prior to this grant, USC lacked a modern biomolecular NMR in an open user facility. The first impact of this instrument will thus be to provide a new training and research tool for user groups involved in this project. This includes 18 faculty, 14 undergraduates, 104 graduate students and 54 postdocs across 6 academic departments and 5 schools within USC. Second, this grant will enable establishing a general structural biology colloquia at USC integrating this instrument (NMR) with other methods used to determine the structures of molecules, such as X-ray crystallography. Finally, this instrument will be used as a recruiting and training tool and for the USC TRIO and USC MESA programs aimed at serving disadvantaged, science-oriented high school juniors and seniors.
