One of the world’s
largest magnets
delivered to Fitzsimons
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Colorado Denver today received an enormous
yet delicate delivery of a much anticipated $5 million nuclear magnetic
resonance magnet.
The delivery came nearly two years after CU researchers were awarded a
$6.5 million grant to bring to Colorado the largest NMR magnet available
in the
world today. It will be the only magnet of its type in the Rocky Mountain
region and will be used for biomedical research.
The magnet, which weighs 20,000 pounds and is a story and a half tall, will
be housed in the south research tower of Research Complex 1 at Fitzsimons.
The giant magnet is wound from several miles of niobium-tin superconducting
wire and is almost half a million times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic
field. Due to the magnetic force, the beams in the south tower had to be
specially placed to keep them out of the magnet’s field. The first
three floors of the building were designed to provide a huge open space to
accommodate the 17-foot tall magnet and the 34-foot diameter cement pit where
the magnet will be placed.
The grant was awarded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences
at the National Institutes of Health.
CU-Boulder associate professor Deborah Wuttke and CU-Boulder professor Arthur
Pardi, both of the chemistry and biochemistry department, are the project
leaders for the grant. David Jones, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology
at UCD will co-direct the facility.
“Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a tool used to solve the structures
of both simple and complex molecules,” Wuttke said. “This technique
is the molecular parallel of magnetic resonance imaging, which provides three-dimensional
images of the body. The 900-megahertz nuclear magnetic resonance magnet will
be used to determine the 3-dimensional structures of proteins, DNA and RNA
by first determining how individual atoms are connected and then how these
polymers twist and turn to fold into well-defined structures.”
Learning more about these structures is essential for understanding the molecular
basis of all biological function and the changes that lead to disease, and
is a critical area of biomedical research, she added.
While researchers at CU-Boulder and UCD already use several smaller magnets
for research, the giant magnet will allow them to gain more accurate pictures
of how molecules work.
“The information obtained can be used to design new therapeutics as well
as understand the underlying mechanisms of life,” Pardi said. “Researchers
who will use this instrumentation will be addressing a variety of biomedical
problems, including those involved in cancer, HIV, antiviral activity, effects
of environmental estrogens, immune deficiency, birth defects and alcohol
sensitivity.”
Approximately $5 million of the grant was used to purchase the nuclear magnetic
resonance magnet. The remainder of the grant will be used to operate and
maintain the facility.
“Planning for this magnet began six years ago, before these magnets even
existed,” said
Dr. E. Chester Ridgway, senior associate dean for Academic Affairs at the
CU School of Medicine. “The development of the Fitzsimons campus included
this magnet as an integral part of the infrastructure, and this machine will
be the cornerstone for development of the premier Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
center in the Rocky Mountain region.”
CU joins five other institutions chosen by the NIH’s National Institute
of General Medical Sciences to establish six regional centers for state-of-the-art
nuclear magnetic resonance facilities for biomedical research. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, New York Structural Biology Center, University of
Georgia at Athens and University of Wisconsin at Madison received grants
in 2002. The University of California at Berkeley was awarded a grant at
the same time as CU.
The regional facility will serve institutions including the University of
Utah School of Medicine, Texas A&M and University of Texas Southwestern
Medical Center.
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