An 800 MHz NMR Cryoprobe for the New Jersey Statewide NMR Facility

This grant partially supports the acquisition of an 800 MHz NMR cryoprobe to be sited at Rutgers University, Busch science campus. The cryoprobe technology will initially serve a minimum of four New Jersey institutions including Rutgers-New Brunswick (NB), Rutgers-Newark, Princeton University and Montclair State University (MSU). Eleven faculty members, three from Rutgers-NB/RWJ, two from Rutgers-Newark, four from Princeton and two from MSU are participating in the New Jersey Wide 800 MHz NMR Facility. Hands-on NMR experiments will be performed by approximately 60 graduate students and postdocs, as well as undergraduates involved in NMR research. The NMR facility will also have significant impact on research and teaching of additional faculty members in New Jersey through the research collaborations with the faculty and students in the facility. The research activities of the users of the facility are in molecular biophysics with emphasis in the following areas: Protein structure determination; Conformational studies and dynamics of folded and unfolded proteins to understand the basis of protein folding and misfolding and their associated medical disorders; Studies of nucleic acid structure and interactions; NMR investigations of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions; Design and informational analysis of small bio-medically important peptides; and NMR methods development for next generation application.