Spectrometers

Tender description

The University of Birmingham has been awarded RC-UK funds as part of an EPSRC-led UK-wide NMR Infrastructure call to purchase an ultra-high field 1 GHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer for the Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy (HWB-NMR) and for the greater benefit of the UK life-sciences oriented NMR community. Currently the highest magnetic field available for NMR, this state-of-the-art equipment will allow local PIs, collaborators and external users to remain at the forefront of international research, in terms of scientific applications, methodological development and the recruitment and training of graduate students and young researchers, fulfilling RC-UK’s overarching strategy to support excellence in UK science. This additional ultra-high field capability will provide a unique enabling technology, supporting a wide range of science with far-reaching impact. The University of Birmingham has been awarded RC-UK funds as part of an EPSRC-led UK-wide NMR Infrastructure call to purchase an ultra-high field 1 GHz nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer for the Henry Wellcome Building for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy (HWB-NMR) and for the greater benefit of the UK life-sciences oriented NMR community. Currently the highest magnetic field available for NMR, this state-of-the-art equipment will allow local PIs, collaborators and external users to remain at the forefront of international research, in terms of scientific applications, methodological development and the recruitment and training of graduate students and young researchers, fulfilling RC-UK’s overarching strategy to support excellence in UK science. This additional ultra-high field capability will provide a unique enabling technology, supporting a wide range of science with far-reaching impact. Spectacular progress has been made over the last decade in isolating the macromolecular complexes that are fundamental to nearly every cellular process. NMR spectroscopy is a uniquely powerful method for studying the structured, dynamic, partially structured and intrinsically disordered states of these macromolecular complexes, at near physiological conditions in atomic detail, and permits their changes to be followed on biologically relevant time-scales, resulting in crucial mechanistic understanding of their functions. This capability allows both stable and transient complex biomolecular interactions to be explained in the unprecedented detail necessary for understanding living processes. The equipment to be procured comprises a superconducting magnet operating at 1 GHz magnetic field, a spectrometer console capable of transmitting and receiving radiofrequency of > 1 GHz, associated cryogenically-cooled probes for measurement of samples in 5 mm tubes as well as for samples at low volume (35 uL), and a fully temperature-controlled sample changer to fit a 1 GHz magnet to enable high sample through-put.