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, Robert Bergosh, Perry Corbin, Brian Mohney, Jeffrey Weidenhamer and their colleagues from Ashland University will acquire a 400 MHz NMR spectrometer to support chemical research of faculty and their undergraduate research students. Proposed research spans a number of areas in chemistry, biochemistry and biology, including: 1) the synthesis of dihydropyridones (in collaboration with a chemist at Merck); 2) the development of models for chemical shift to structure relationships for fullerene characterization; 3) the synthesis of calixarene and resorcinarene-core biodegradable polylactides and related amphiphilic star block copolymers; 4) the study of the interaction of the heat shock cognate protein 70 with the c-terminal PDZ domain of neuronal-interleukin 16 ; 5) the study of the conformational restriction of cysteine-bound nitric oxide in peptides and proteins; 6) the characterization of biologically active natural products and 7) the study of the flexibility and thermal properties of alpha A-crystallins found in ectomorphic bony fish. The instrumentation will also be heavily-incorporated into the laboratory curriculum at Ashland University -- in a curriculum that emphasizes hands-on training of students.
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, biochemistry and biology. Students receiving training with this instrumentation will be better-prepared for careers in science and technology.
