[NMR900 blog] 850 MHz NMR System at UBC

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850 MHz NMR System at UBC

University of British Columbia Orders Canada's First Compact 850 MHz NMR System from Bruker to Enable Research on Microbial Diseases

Vancouver, British Columbia, December 15, 2010 (press release)
http://www.bruker-biospin.com/index.php?id=4291

Bruker Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR) announces a major order from the University of British Columbia for its ultra-high field AVANCE™ III 850 spectrometer. The 850 MHz Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) magnet and spectrometer will enable researchers at the University of British Columbia and nearby Simon Fraser University to study the mechanisms of microbial diseases. Funds to purchase Canada's first 850 MHz actively-shielded compact NMR magnet were provided to the ASTRID (Advanced Structural Biology of Re-emerging Infectious Diseases) project by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund, and the University of British Columbia (UBC).

Bruker's new 850 MHz Ascend™ magnetThe AVANCE III 850 spectrometer is based on Bruker's new 850 MHz Ascend™ magnet that combines the key advantages of Bruker's well-established UltraShield™ Plus magnets with the superior performance and greater convenience delivered by advanced superconductor technology. This further innovation has enabled the design of smaller magnet coils, resulting in a significant reduction in the size of the cryostat. The new Ascend magnets are therefore easier to site, even safer to run and offer reduced operating costs. With over 160 ultra-high field installations worldwide, Bruker has an unmatched track record in NMR magnet technology.

The AVANCE III 850 system includes Bruker's high-sensitivity CryoProbe™ technology, enabling researchers to perform measurements on very small quantities of sample. In addition it is equipped with Bruker's latest Efree™ probe technologies offering state-of-the-art research tools for the investigation of membrane proteins in biological solid-state NMR.

Suzana K. Straus, Associate Professor of Chemistry at UBC, commented: "In recent years developments in the field of solid state NMR have led to an emergence of biomolecular methods to investigate membrane proteins. With this new magnet and probe technology, we are now able to determine the full three-dimensional structures and to characterize the membrane interactions of a range of peptides and proteins of interest. This will have great impact on our knowledge of infectious diseases."

"The incredible sensitivity and dispersion of the CryoProbe equipped solution and solid-state 850 MHz spectrometer will enable ASTRID researchers to carry out challenging structural and dynamic studies of the complex biomolecular machines used by notorious pathogens, including methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis," said Lawrence McIntosh, Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Chemistry at the University of British Columbia.


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