The Chemistry Department of Boston College is requesting $400,000 toward the purchase of a 500 MHz Varian VXR-500 NMR Spectrometer system to be used for biochemical and chemical research. Projects which will benefit from the acquisition of this instrument include studies of (i) enzyme mechanisms using site-specific mutants; (ii) modified nucleic acids and their interactions with DNA bindingproteins; (iii) hormone peptide structures in solution; (iv) model membranes and their interactions with water-soluble lipases; (v) cellular metabolism in unusual organisms; (vi) apoB peptides and their interactions with lipids; (vii) synthetic compounds with potential for chemotherapy; (viii) synthetic active sites for catalysis of bond formation; (ix) synthetic routes to several antibiotics; (x) electronic effects on NMR parameters of aromatic molecules; and (xi) metal complexes of nucleotides. Many of these projects will be aided by the greater spectral dispersion and higher sensitivity of the 500 over the presently available 300 MHz machine. Structural studies of several classes of molecules require such a high-field spectrometer for 2-D methodologies.
