Acquisition of a Bruker E580 Pulse EPR Spectrometer

Obtaining technology needed for Medical College of Wisconsin and other community research partners to study biomedically significant research problems

Return to Listing

Full Project Name:Acquisition of a Bruker E580 Pulse EPR SpectrometerPrincipal Investigator:Candice S. Klug, PhD, BiophysicsCo-Investigator:Brian Bennett, DPhil, Biophysics; Jimmy Feix, PhD, Biophysics; Jung-Ja Kim, PhD, BiochemistryAward Amount:$300,000

Award Date

December2006

Project Duration:12 months

Project Description Narrative:

Recent advances in the commercial instrumentation and application of pulsed EPR spectroscopy are rapidly making new techniques in pulse instrumentation essential to specific research communities. Pulse instrumentation capable of running double electron electron resonance (DEER), double quantum coherence (DQC), and electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) experiements at cryogenic temperatures is not available at the Medical College of Wisconsin, nor in the surrounding regional community, at this time. Research on this equipment will lead to a better understanding of drug and toxin metabolism as well as the physiology of diseases such as epilepsy, arrhythmia, and cancer in mammals.

Through this award, the Medical College of Wisconsin will obtain a Bruker ELEXSYS 580 pulse spectrometer to open entirely new range of study of biomedically significant research problems to the MCW and surrounding community.

Outcomes & Lessons Learned:

• Obtained instrument, becoming the first instrument of its kind in the state of Wisconsin and opening up new avenues of research for investigators within the Medical College of Wisconsin and across the region

• Developed appropriate training schedule and sessions for users, and hosted an open house to showcase the instrument to other investigators

• Began successful collection of valuable data by major users within the Medical College of Wisconsin departments of biophysics and biochemistry, as well as investigators at Northwestern University, National Biomedical EPR Center, Purdue University, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Established several interdisciplinary collaborations within MCW for use of the instrument