1) Varian Inova 600 for Biological
NMR The new Varian 600 was installed in September
of 2003 and is fully equipped for biological NMR:
Four RF channels, pulsed field gradients and cryogenically-cooled
probe. This instrument was purchased with funds from BCMB (Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics)
and BIO5 Institute
as part of the start-up funding
for two new faculty hires in structural biochemistry:
Megan
McEvoy and Matt Cordes.
The instrument is housed in Old Chemistry and operated
by the Chemistry Department NMR Facility. Time is available
to all researchers on campus, with priority for BCMB faculty.
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Overhead rail system
and stairs down into the NMR laboratory. Cryogen
tanks are raised with a sliding chain hoist, moved
clear of the stairs and lowered to the floor.
Inserting a sample into the actively-shielded
600 MHz Oxford magnet.
The two-bay console
of the Varian Inova-600 with doors open. The RF transmitters (4 channels)
are located in the upper right, with digital controllers and waveform generators
below. Below this are the two pulse amplifiers and at the bottom is the power
supply. On the left side, starting at the top, we have the frequency synthesizers,
the acquisition computer, the gradient controller, and the shim and lock unit at
the bottom. The air dryer (blue) is mounted on the wall in the background. 
2) Bruker DRX-600
Purchased used
(3 years old) in 1999 and installed in August of 1999, the Bruker
DRX-600 has triple-resonance and triple-axis gradient
capabilities. It has been upgraded to
include a fourth channel and 2H
transmitter for 2H
decoupling, as well as updated software to allow for
3-axis deuterium gradient shimming and easy setup of biological
3D experiments. This instrument is currently used for small
biological molecules such as glycopeptides, particularly in association with micelles.
It is also used for 2D experiments on complex
natural products, and the 3 mm 13C probe
permits 13C and DEPT on submilligram organic
samples, as well as INADEQUATE on biosynthetically labelled samples.
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The actively-shielded 14.1 Tesla Magnex magnet
is equipped with vibration-damping legs (grey). The stability
and resolution of this magnet are "sweet". Users have a choice
of three probes: A Bruker TXI 5 mm triple-resonance (HCN) 3-axis
gradient probe, a newer Nalorac 5 mm triple-resonance Z-axis gradient
probe and a Nalorac 3 mm direct CH probe with Z-axis gradient. Temperature
control of the sample (7oC - 60oC)
is provided by a Whatman air dryer, Bruker BCU 05 air chiller
and a BVT 3000 controller.
The Avance DRX console has a 3-axis gradient controller and amplifier, four full RF channels (each equipped with shaped pulse capability), and high power pulse amplifiers for H, X and Y with a 20 W 2H amplifier. The gradient pre-emphasis unit allows users to balance the gradient amplifiers more conveniently.
3) Bruker DRX-500 The Oxford 11.7 Tesla unshielded magnet began its life as part of a Bruker AM-500 spectrometer. In January of 1999 the console, computer, upper bore tube, room temperature shims and probes were replaced to give the instrument triple-resonance, 3-axis gradient capability. The $330,000 for the upgrade came from an NSF Biological Multi-User Equipment grant, including a 50% match from the University. The DRX-500 is preferred for 2D experiments on organic samples, selective 1D experiments (NOE, TOCSY), low concentration 13C and DEPT spectra and any sample which requires high resolution to resolve overlapped multiplets. Return to Top of Page
The unshielded Oxford 11.7
Tesla magnet is equipped with inflated-tire vibration dampers.
We have two gradient probes: Nalorac 5 mm inverse
HCN 3-axis gradient and Nalorac 5 mm inverse broadband HX 3-axis
gradient probe. The inverse broadband probe is used for {1H,77Se}
and {1H,31P}
gradient 2D experiments. Our old probes are still used,
such as the Bruker 5 mm Dual 1H/13C
probe which gives very nice 13C
spectra on organic samples of a few milligrams or more,
and a Bruker 10 mm broadband direct probe. Temperature
control of the sample (7oC - 60oC)
is provided by a Whatman air dryer, Bruker BCU 05 air chiller
and a BVT 2000 controller. The magnet drifts down and requires
lowering the 1H frequency by
100 kHz every 18 months.
The cockpit is identical to the DRX-600 cockpit, except that the monitor is smaller. Standard parameter sets are provided for all typical 1D and 2D experiments, so that the user can just "click", optimize a few parameters, and start. As long as the probe is tuned, the pulse calibrations contained in the parameter sets are excellent for nearly all samples.
The Avance DRX console has a 3-axis gradient controller and
amplifier, a third (X nucleus) channel pulse amplifier and three
full RF channels, each equipped with shaped pulse capability.
The Digital Quadrature Detection (DQD) capability eliminates
F2 artifacts in fast 2D experiments on concentrated
samples.4) Varian Unity-300 The Varian Unity-300 was installed in 1993. It is equipped with a 4-nucleus (1H, 19F, 13C, 31P) direct probe and a broadband inverse probe. In 2002 we upgraded the Sun computers and the VNMR software for the Unity-300 and its satellite stations. The two satellite data processing stations (Bloch and Ernst) are SunBlade 100's with large monitors, and the spectrometer itself (Unity300) is operated by an Ultra-10 with a color LCD monitor. Variable-temperature work is very convenient, with both the standard heat-exchanger / bucket setup and a larger N2 (liq.) dewar with heat exchanger for overnight low temperature runs. A 160 L N2(liq.) pressure-building tank in the adjacent room provides dry N2 gas for low temperature operation. Preferred applications include low temperature, fast multinuclear and routine 1H and 13C of organic samples. Return to Top of Page
Oxford 7.05 Tesla magnet
with "magnet leg" to the left, heat exchanger bucket underneath
and large N2 dewar on the right behind the
magnet. Tubular filters for 2H,
31P and 13C
are visible behind the plastic stepstool.
Unity-300 Console with two bays and variable temperature controller in the upper right. Two broadband channels make hardware changes unnecessary when changing from direct to inverse experiments.
The Unity-300 cockpit consists of a Sun Ultra-10 Unix workstation, an LCD monitor, the differential box and remote status unit and a laser printer.
Satellite data processing workstation "Ernst", a Sun Sunblade 100. Data acquired on the Unity-300 is instantly available on the satellite stations, and printing and plotting is routed through the Unity300. The HP7550a pen plotter is shown to the right of Ernst.
Satellite data processing workstation "Bloch", a Sun Sunblade 100.
5) Bruker AM-250 The Bruker AM-250 was installed in 1987 and continues to offer reliable service as a workhorse walk-on instrument for 1H and 13C analysis. Recently a Linux PC was added with Bruker XWin-NMR software for satellite data processing. Data is transfered to the PC using a variant of the ZZNET program called SENDZZ, written by Tom Pratum, and a PC program called getzx, written by David Tiktin. Return to Top of Page
The AM-250 magnet.
The AM-250 console has been kept alive and happy by robbing parts from the old AM-500 console as the AM-250 parts die of old age.
On the right is a bank of disk
drives with an old PC on top. The PC is used for the NMR reservation
system, and for transferring files from the Aspect 3000 of the AM-250
and to the Linux PC "Larmor". In the center is Larmor, which
uses XWinNMR for Linux, and on the left is a color inkjet printer.6) Varian Gemini-200 The Varian Gemini-200 was purchased in 1993 with funds earmarked for undergraduate education. The instrument is used for demonstrations for each section of the organic chemistry course, and with the aid of an autosampler each student receives a spectrum of his or her sample from the laboratory course for each experiment. Chemistry majors are all trained in hands-on use and receive a "driver's license" to operate the instrument independently in the Chemistry 400B, 412, 446 and 447 courses. The variable temperature unit is used to study dynamic behavior and paramagnetic shifts in the range of 20-100oC. Research use is given a lower priority in the reservation system but is significant, especially in the summer.
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The cockpit includes the HP7550 pen plotter, monitor and base with five control "knobs", keyboard and dot matrix printer.
The "R2D2" magnet with the robot
sample changer to its right. 
The Gemini-200 console, with an
oscilloscope and speakers on top, used for undergraduate demonstrations.
7) UANMR - The Campus-Wide NMR
Data Processing Server The "nerve center" of the NMR Facility is the SGI Octane UNIX
workstation "UANMR". The Inova-600, DRX-600, DRX-500, Unity-300 and
AM-250 (via the Linux PC larmor) data disks are remotely mounted on UANMR
so that data processing using either the Bruker software package XWinNMR
or the third-party package Felix is no different from processing data
on the instruments. UANMR can also be used remotely by any
PC on campus using the eXcursion PC software, and spectra can be remotely
printed. The shell scripts "drx2felix1d", "drx2felix2d", "unity2felix1d", "unity2felix2d, "inova2felix1d and "inova2felix2d" allow simple conversion
of Bruker or Varian data to Felix format and automatic construction of Felix
macros for 1D and 2D data processing. UANMR also operates the
NMR reservation system, a text-based program for making and cancelling
NMR reservations remotely via SSH or telnet. Data on UANMR and the remotely mounted disks are backed
up on an array disk system on another server once a week. All of the data storage and data processing functions of UANMR are
currently being moved to the new Quad-core Gateway 9515 Linux dataserver and
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UANMR: The
SGI Octane CPU, a box containing external disks, the monitor and
a color DeskJet printer.