The University of Iowa Central NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Facility serves more than 25 research groups and over 100 graduate and undergraduate students and post-doctoral associates of many university departments from the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Carver College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and College of Engineering.
The NMR facility is financially supported by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS), Office of the Vice President for Research, and user-fee revenues. It is administratively supervised by the Department of Chemistry, and two permanent staff members and a part time Graduate Research Assistant support its day-to-day operations.
The NMR facility houses six spectrometers with proton observation frequencies ranging from 300MHz to 600MHz including solid state NMR equipment. These instruments can perform most of the state-of-the-art NMR experiments for small molecules as well as for bio-molecular research. Variable temperature and multinuclear capabilities are standard in all the instruments. The radio frequency consoles are advanced, and the equipment include many modular state-of-the-art NMR probes.
Several Avance series NMR instruments were replaced recently with their modern Neo counterparts. The probe selections are diverse with a broad range of technical capabilities. The solid-state NMR spectrometer includes many modern probes which can spin the samples up to 35kHz.
| Spectrometer | Make/Model/Frequency/Architecture | State | Probes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neo-300 | Bruker/Neo/300 MHz/Double | Solution | BBFO, DUAL |
| Neo-400 | Bruker/Neo/400 MHz/Triple | Solution | Prodigy-Cryo, BBFO-TR |
| Neo-400 NB | Bruker/Neo NB/400 MHz/Double | Solution | BBFO, i-Probe |
| Neo-500 | Bruker/Neo/500 MHz/Double | Solution | BBFO |
| Av-III-600 | Bruker/Avance-III/600 MHz/Quadruple | Solution | BBO, TBI, Micro-1.7 mm |
| Av-III-500 | Bruker/Avance-III/500 MHz/Triple | Solids | CPMAS-4, CPMAS-2.5 |
BBFO: Broad Band/19F; DUAL-1H/13C; TR: Triple Resonance; i-Probe: Smart Probe; TBI: Triple Resonance Inverse, CPMAS-4: Cross Polarization Magic Angle Spinning
The NMR facility has also a long-standing history of serving local enterprises. Our current clients include Tjaden Biosciences (Burlington, Iowa), Grain Processing Corporation (Muscatine, Iowa), Procter and Gamble (Iowa City, Iowa) Advanced DNA Technologies (Coralville, Iowa) and Cambrex (Charles City, Iowa). The NMR facility also assists the small startup companies that are part of the UI bioventure program by providing training, access to instrumentation and expertise.
Mission
Develop the facility into one of the premier state-of-the-art facilities for research and education
Policies
Instrument usage
Policies are set up to make sure that: a) on-campus researchers are treated equally and fairly in terms of access, time allocation, and usage fee, b) that the instrument usage is maximized without affecting revenue streams negatively, c) minimize any strain between research groups at times of high usage, d) minimize long down-times due to instrument misuse and repairs, and e) users are considerate to one another in using equipment.
User fee
The users pay a fee to utilize the instrumentation of the NMR facility and the rate depends upon various factors including the operating magnetic field. We also use a dual time fee structure to promote use during off-office hours. The primary reason for charging a user fee is to recover at least a partially the cost of running the facility. Although no standard exists in setting a fee, our rates are one of the lowest among comparable Universities.
Acknowledgment
The NMR facility, the staff members, institutional support and federal grant agencies must be duly acknowledged in manuscripts, conference proceedings, thesis dissertations and lectures. the staff members must also be given co-authorship in manuscripts, wherever it is appropriate as determined by the lead author.
NMR staff
George Crull
Evan Schroeder
