The National Institutes of Health High End Instrumentation Grant Program has awarded an equipment grant of $1,315,168 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to upgrade high field 800 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) core instrumentation in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS). The extensive upgrades include new radiofrequency electronics, cryogenic probe and cooling units, temperature-controlled automatic sample changer, and support systems for the 18.8 Tesla superconducting magnet. The upgrade allows Rensselaer to continue to offer state-of-the-art NMR spectroscopy capabilities for chemistry, biochemistry, molecular biology, and material sciences.

The grant was led by Biocomputation and Bioinformatics Constellation Chair Gaetano Montelione, CBIS NMR Core Facility Director Scott McCallum,  Director of CBIS Research Cores Marimar Lopez, and Professor of Biological Sciences Chunyu Wang.

"These new acquisitions and upgrades to Rensselaer CBIS core facilities made over the last year ensure that our faculty and students have access to cutting-end instrumentation, and that we continue to function as a regional resource for science and engineering research," said Dr. Montelione.

This facility will support a consortium of users at Rensselaer, as well as external user groups, including faculty of the State University of New York at Albany, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Siena College, and Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey.

This NMR upgrade is a part of the larger effort in CBIS to update and equip its research cores with new state-of-the-art technologies. Other additions include a new genomics core facility, a super resolution microscope (STED), a Spectral Computed Tomography (CT) system, and a helium recycling system that supports the supply of the nonrenewable resource critical for the operations of the cryogenically cooled superconducting magnets of the NMR systems.