Structural Biology — the 850 MHz NMR System
Structural biology plays a key role in basic and translational sciences. This facility is available to UAB researchers as a value-added asset toward current and future research. UAB researchers have priority access to the Central Alabama High-Field NMR Facility instrumentation.
The acquisition of the Bruker Avance III HD 850 MHz NMR spectrometer with cryoprobe brings state-of-the-art NMR technology to the UAB biomedical research community. With this acquisition, UAB joins an elite-group of structural biology facilities within the US with such capabilities.The 850 MHz system provides increased efficiency in line narrowing for TROSY-based pulse sequences and will enable structural investigation of larger proteins and protein complexes not amenable at existing 500 MHz to 700 MHz NMR technology. The high sensitivity at 850 MHz will enable investigations on trace quantities of compounds or sparingly soluble proteins.
Additional high-field NMR systems such as the 700-MHz and 600-MHz NMR systems with cryoprobes provide a significant technology enhancement over lower field systems (500 MHz and lower) with respect to sensitivity and spectral resolution. High-tech applications of NMR in the elucidation of the solution structures of large molecular weight proteins and complexes, drug discovery research, studies on hard-to-isolate natural products (e.g., medicinal compounds from plants and marine organisms) are now possible, significantly enhancing existing research projects while fostering developments in exciting new directions that could bring in additional federal and private foundation research dollars to UAB.